What has the Oakland University Student Congress been spending your student money on?

We’ll break it down for you.

Last semester, OUSC spent $10,800 of their $86,301 fall budget on giveaways and $32,950 on events. A grand total of $43,750 on programming alone, according to the “draft” budget they gave to The Oakland Post.

Programming that could have come out of the Student Program Board’s $155,550 budget.

In their running expenses budget , which was obtained from their adviser after difficulties obtaining it from OUSC, $1,270 was spent on bracelets — including three bracelets from Tiffany & Co. — that were given away to students at the Arabian Nights event they co-sponsored with SPB.

They also spent $2,000 on office renovations — including $1,000 on office chairs — and $1,000 on jackets for themselves.

Further, the money they are spending comes from you, the students.

Every year, $27.50 of each student’s tuition goes towards the Student Activities Fee, which is then split among the direct funded organizations.

Of that amount, OUSC gets 16 percent.

OUSC has not only spent more than half of their budget on giveaways and events, but they have also gone into the negatives this year in their main account, which, according to their own bylaws, must maintain a balance of $5,000.

The organization is currently $1,696 in debt even with the extra student money they received from a $2.50 increase in the Student Activities Fee last year.

Even with that extra $7,697 of your money, they still overspent.

While we understand that some programming is required to have a successful organization, we think OUSC could have spent their money doing what they promised — representing the voice of students.

If you ask any student their biggest complaint against the university, most would say parking. A topic that has been avoided by the current OUSC administration until this point.

However, parking still remains a huge issue on campus.

Though the current administration has addressed the issues with university officials, there have been no solutions. Their current plan consists of using signs to address the problem.

Nothing has been done to repair the Bear Buses, a transportation device last year’s administration started, recently either.

In fact, OUSC didn’t realize there were any problems with the buses. Though, according to a Bear Bus driver, they have many issues, including nearly bald tires and brake problems.

OUSC’s mission statement states that OUSC “aims to meet the needs and address the concerns of our fellow students and encourage students to voice their ideas to help us create the best possible ‘Oakland experience.’”

There are plenty of needs and concerns at OU currently, but the present OUSC administration has failed to formally address them.

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The staff editorial is written weekly by members of The Oakland Post’s editorial board.