In addition to free books on loan, and a $400-$600 stipend a year, three students receive almost half of the budget in tuition payments.

If you’re lucky enough to get elected to the Student Government Association Executive Council, not only will your tuition be paid for by the SGA, but you will also receive free books and a stipend.

The three-member council, composed of the president, vice president and secretary general, is elected each April in schoolwide elections.

This year’s Executive Council consists of President James Orr, Vice President Rachel Hammond and Secretary General Rachel Mansfield.

But a little-known perk of the office is free tuition. The revised SGA Constitution, which was revised and ratified by the senate on Nov. 22, 2004, states in Article IV, Section 13, that “The elected Executive Council officers shall receive their books on a loan basis and maintenance fees at the beginning of each semester.” The revised constitution was never voted on in a student referendum, but the provision for free tuition goes back as long as SGA has had a significant influence on campus affairs.

According to several senators, the language of the SGA Constitution is not clear; some senators told The Pacer that the language was ambiguous and they did not know that Executive Council members got free classes in the fall and spring semesters that they serve.

The problem came in “maintenance fees,” which several senators mistakenly understood to mean fees exclusive of tuition.

“It’s a pretty widely held practice,” said Al Hooten, UTM’s vice chancellor for Finance and Administration.

Hooten said that every campus he has served in the past had some provision allowing for compensation for SGA executives. But Hooten stopped short in saying that SGA’s choice of language was completely transparent.

The SGA is budgeted $34,940 for the 2006 fiscal year, which began July 1. Of that, $15,000 is allocated under “Awards.” It is that $15,000 that pays for the three Executive Council members’ tuition, which is 43 percent of SGA’s total operating budget. Based on this year’s fee schedule, $13,428 will be spent to cover the Executive Council’s tuition.

After adding $1,600 to pay student employees and $280 for “academic salaries,” SGA will pay $16,880 for staff, which equates to 48 percent of its total budget.

SGA and its executives’ perks are funded from the $45 per semester student activities fee. Of that $45 per student, SGA takes $3.15, or 7 percent of the total fee.

Sen. Tianita Duke, who represents the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, said she did not know that it is a standing practice for SGA to pay for tuition.

“That’s just kind of odd,” Duke said.

“In some ways they deserve it, but some of the money could go to better uses.”

Sen. Eric Rivera of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, said that he thinks President James Orr and his Executive Council deserve “some sort of compensation,” but he said he didn’t know if the three deserve tuition.

“The students should decide,” Rivera said.

Other senators were also surprised that nearly half the SGA budget pays for tuition, but they refused to go on record because they do not want to anger the Executive Council.

Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs David Belote said that compensating the Executive Council is justified, saying they do a “tremendous” amount of work for the university.

“The perks could be a motivation for running for office,” Belote said. “But I would hope a person’s motive would be more altruistic. “The SGA president puts in an exorbitant amount of time. Whether or not that office should be compensated is in the eye of the beholder.”

Belote said that full-tuition compensation was standard for SGA leadership for “at least 25 years,” the period of time he’s been serving at UTM.

In addition to books and tuition for the fall and spring semesters, the SGA president also receives a $600 stipend, free books, a staff parking sticker and a free meal ticket from Sodexho.

The vice president gets free tuition, free books and a $500 stipend. SGA’s secretary general gets free tuition, free books and a $400 stipend.

In an unprecedented move, SGA President James Orr also successfully lobbied university administrators to help pay for two summer classes in addition to the summer and fall terms.

Senators were never officially told that Orr was getting part of his summer classes paid for out of student fees, but according to some senators who refused to be named, a rumor began circulating in the summer that Orr got his classes paid for.

“Some of us talked to (Orr) and he said it was customary. He told us to check the constitution,” a senator who preferred not to be named told The Pacer.

“Some of us were concerned about it.”

However paying for summer classes is not customary. Former SGA Executive Council members confirmed that it has never been a practice for Executive Council members to get their tuition paid, even if they were taking summer classes.

Article IV, Section 13, of the constitution does not explicitly mandate which terms would be paid for.

Belote approved Orr’s request, saying, “(Orr) had been doing a lot of SGA work in the summer, so he’s still representing students.

“The question was asked, ‘I’m doing a lot, can we (get my tuition paid),’ we went to the constitution, and it didn’t specify when an SGA president could get the money,” Belote said.

Belote called having Orr on campus during the summer “a real luxury” because it allowed him to continue SGA’s work through summer.

But other senators are not so convinced. Another anonymous senator said, “It’s not so fair to students who don’t get their tuition paid for. SGA doesn’t do anything in the summer.”

According to SGA financial records, $528 was transferred from the $15,000 “awards” allocation of the SGA budget to the Office of Financial Aid on July 26 to pay for part of Orr’s summer tuition.

According to last year’s catalog, Orr would have owed the university $972 in tuition for his two summer courses, Philosophy and History. That means other sources such as scholarships paid for the $444 that SGA did not pay for.

Under usual circumstances, no students get fee waivers in the summer because the National Institute of Higher Education does not consider summer an official part of the school year. However, SGA avoided that school policy by paying for Orr’s courses directly out of the SGA budget.

When asked how he paid for his summer courses, Orr simply said “scholarships.”

However, Orr later retracted that and said, “As SGA president, our tuition is paid for.” Orr refused to comment further.