Photo courtesy of Oakland University Student Congress

Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC) is the official student government for Oakland University. They serve to advocate and represent the student body. However, questions surrounding OUSC’s budget and leadership loomed large during the election process. 

OUSC’s budget is public information, however, one must email and ask the organization to receive official financial information. The organization has a budget of $363,000 per academic year (including summer 2023, fall 2023 and winter 2024). The summer budget is $130,000, the fall budget is $107,000 and the winter budget is $126,000. 

$363,000 can do a lot of things for OU students. That could cover over 25 student’s tuition — giving them a full ride. That could buy 3,445 textbooks. That could also buy you 66,120 Slim Chickens Crispy Chicken Sandwiches at the Oakland Center.

OUSC is allocated funds directly from the Student Activity Fund (SAF). These funds are distributed among student organizations around OU. OUSC receives substantial funding from SAF allocation. OUSC receives $13,000 in the summer, $58,000 in the fall and $55,000 in the winter directly from SAF. This totals to $126,000 total per year directly coming from OU funding. 

On the Executive Office section of the budget sheet, two scholarships are allocated under OUSC’s funds. The Presidential Scholarship and the Vice-Presidential Scholarship. The Presidential Scholarship gives $2,500 per year to the serving president of OUSC, and the Vice-Presidential Scholarship awards $2,000 to the current vice president. 

Some might argue that OUSC students should earn money from their volunteer work. After all, the student’s hard work in the organization should come with a financial reward  — the scholarships are a good idea to help financially support the president and vice president.

However, OUSC members get paid an hourly wage for their work on campus. In addition to receiving a salary, the president and vice president also receive a scholarship from the organization’s budget.

According to the OUSC Budget sheet, the president earns a maximum yearly salary of $17,730 for the summer, fall and winter semesters. Combined with the presidential scholarship of $3,500, that’s a total of $21,230 per year. 

Additionally, the vice president benefits from this arrangement. The vice president earns a maximum of $16,650 per year. In addition to this salary, they also earn an extra $2,000 per year through the Vice President Scholarship. That’s $18,650 total. 

When randomly interviewing three students on campus, none were familiar with the organization. In fact, none of them had attended any of its events or seen any of its initiatives in action on campus. 

“I understand why some of the budget might be necessary for certain events, but at the same time I feel like a lot of that money could be going to other important sections of the university,” sophomore Matilde Rabajoli said. “I’m not trying to diminish their work, however, there’s a lot more aspects of the university that could use a higher budget. It’s a bit unnecessary.”

“So, they take scholarship money out for themselves? That’s a bit weird,” freshman Brody Pollard said.

Pollard suggested an alternative option: giving the scholarship money to lower-ranking and newer OUSC members to encourage their future participation in the organization.

“I feel like they should instead give the scholarships to the legislators. OUSC should help the people inside the organization and help raise them up,” Pollard said.

“I feel like they should be extending an extra hand or an extra scholarship to more members. Maybe OUSC should give the money to future members that might be getting into the club during the year — that might help more,” Rabajoli said.

Some students, including presidential candidate Joshua Kobus, argued that money allocated to OUSC should be spent helping the student body as a whole, not simply giving the leaders scholarships. As an organization set out to advocate for students, shouldn’t more money be spent on actual students?

Kobus campaigned on the idea of transparency for the 2024 presidential election. On the official presidential ticket platform, he explained his grievances with the budget system and OUSC’s transparency. 

“The congressional budget nor their actions and meeting minutes have been easily accessible to the public, requiring you to reach out to the OUSC email to specifically request the information,” Kobus said. “The students deserve to see where their money is going to.”

On his platform, Kobus delved into the topic of OUSC funding and how the executive board is receiving scholarships.

“OUSC is funded by students’ tuition, so that money deserves to be used with utmost respect. In recent years, however, they’ve been giving themselves scholarships,” Kobus said. 

Currently, the president and vice president receive two scholarships – directly coming from the organization’s budget. Kobus instead suggested that this scholarship money be allocated to OU students, not OUSC executives. 

“My very first act will be getting rid of this completely. Not a single penny left. With the presidential scholarships gone, the money saved will go toward another form of scholarships: Students will have the opportunity to nominate others to receive scholarships in blocks of $1,000,” Kobus said.

Kobus lost the OUSC presidential election to the Garcia-Brumer slate. On their platform, there is no mention of the scholarships in question.

“And so, the fact that the vice president and president get scholarships kind of shows where the priorities really went. I think it kind of went away from the students and more towards satisfying the president and vice president,” Kobus said. 

In an interview with The Oakland Post, current Student Body President Murryum Farooqi explained what she saw as the purpose of the scholarship. Farooqi argued the scholarship allows disadvantaged students to be president as they otherwise couldn’t afford to work off their hourly pay alone.

“The reason it was started was for accessibility and to make sure that people of all socioeconomic backgrounds can be in Student Congress,” Farooqi said.

Farooqi also pointed out that the president is able to donate the scholarship money if they so choose. Farooqi claims she has done so and that the next president, Jimena Garcia, has also done so.

“You don’t want to just get rid of the whole policy… as soon as someone comes who needs it, should they have to reinstate that and argue all over again?” Farooqi said.

The topic of scholarships was heavily debated during the presidential election both this year and last year.

“I remember when I brought this up at the debates. Farooqi came up with multiple different excuses. She said that she actually donated the money, which there’s no proof of,” Kobus said. “Later, she explained the reason now is that they work off the clock, so they kind of need the scholarship money. They tend to go back and forth on excuses because I don’t think it’s justified. I think most students disagree with the whole scholarship thing.

“If I were to donate the scholarship money, I would at least show proof of it or a receipt – but they have not done that at all. And so I think their definition of donation is really that they’re just pocketing the money,” Kobus added.

Farooqi claimed that Kobus was being hypocritical in the interview, as he had past membership in the Student Life Lecture Board (SLLB) who, according to Farooqi, has less transparency than OUSC.

“It’s important that the president of SLLB is calling out OUSC for budget transparency, which we are transparent about. The SLLB budget is not transparent,” Farooqi said. 

“Student Life Lecture Board is completely a volunteering job. I don’t get paid for it,” Kobus said. “The purpose of the club is to bring popular speakers on the campus — like Josh Peck. It states in our constitution bylaws that financial information with the lecturer’s agency is confidential. SLLB can’t be spreading information unless the agency gives us permission to.

“The difference between OUSC and SLLB is that OUSC is supposed to be like representing the students. That’s why I’m arguing that they should be transparent. Whereas all SLLB does is bring out speakers to campus.”

Farooqi also pointed out that Kobus gets similar benefits, such as financial compensation, as a resident assistant.

“We have candidate Josh, and then there’s Josh in real life,” Farooqi said. “Candidate Josh is all for morals, ethics and no scholarships. But in real life, he gets free housing and dining because he’s an RA.”

“If you work for housing, you’ll get housing benefits. Being an RA is a job – you’re working for housing to compensate you for housing,” Kobus said. 

Later in the interview, Farooqi criticized Kobus for being the child of a faculty member and receiving scholarships from being a relative of a faculty member. 

“He gets a percentage off his tuition because his dad is a professor. So in real life, he’s benefiting from scholarships and whatnot. But when he’s campaigning, suddenly it’s unethical to take anything in exchange for work. The context is strange,” Farooqi said. 

“That’s the result of the teacher’s union reaching an agreement with the university,” Kobus said. “I do have a scholarship, but I also have many other scholarships that I earned through merit. The difference between all those scholarships and what OUSC is doing is that I’m not giving myself a scholarship under my own power. My scholarships were already determined through union initiatives that I benefit from. I don’t have the choice to directly just give it to myself.”

Should OUSC continue its practice of allocating scholarship money for the president and vice president out of the organization’s budget? 

For more information, follow OUSC on Instagram @ouscofficial. Additionally, you can check out its Grizzorgs page.

According to the budget sheet, “Starting and SAF are estimates.” Under the compensation section, OUSC lists that, “Actual payroll will not be anywhere close to this number.”