Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Opposition publicity
In the time-honored Beetle Beat tradition, allow me to help publicize the advocacy sites of those trying to raise our fees.
First up is their blog. If you're curious as to "Why this, Why now," too bad, they haven't decided. While they've since corrected it, after I had to point it out through a proxy, they originally identified the "SQUELCH PARTY" as The Heuristic Squelch and let the link point to the magazine's website.
Also note how the proponents of the fee heavily use the word "we" to describe SUPERB's actions. Especially here. But seriously, SUPERB isn't campaigning. Nosir. That would be wrong. Who wants to take bets on the use of SUPERB's mailing list and space for campaign material?
Next up is their Facebook group, titled "SAVE ENTERTAINMENT." Remember, SUPERB = Entertainment. There is no entertainment outside of SUPERB. I especially like Rae Einerson's response to some questions. I can pretty much do a line-by-line. Heck, I can practically let them speak for themselves.
This has been tried before and failed:
- Yes there was a referendum last year that we were apart of but it was 12 dollars and probably asked too much from students. The money would have be split between superb, graduate assembly, cal jazz and many of the singing groups on campus. From a logistical stand point it was really hard to coordinate/rally all those groups and run an effective referendum. This year we decided to run it just with SUPERB because we still need the money and we figured people might be willing to give $4.50 instead of 12. Fucking other groups. Getting in the way of OUR money.
This is an effort to disconnect SUPERB from other student groups that must struggle for funds
-We don't want to be disconnected from anybody and we are probably one of the most connected groups to other organizations. We provide sound for countless student groups but with the budget we get from the Senate we are unable to maintain our sound equipment. We also wish that nobody had to struggle for funds but this is the burden we bare going to public school in state that is struggling itself. Of course we think what we do is incredibly important but we also think that all the other students groups are incredibly important as well. It also takes a lot more money to provide the services we do. The costs of bands, movies, audio technology are constantly going up and we can not keep up with our current budget. It is not that we are more important but we are an integral part of student life and it cost a lot of money to do what we do. It's not that we're more important, we're just more important.
This doesn't preclude SUPBERB from simultaneously going through the same routes as other groups to attain funds
- Yep. That's the full extent of the response on that point. They've stopped even trying to justify keeping the ability to get even more money after they get this fee open.
This only exists as an initiative because certain SUPERB members have friends in the ASUC that lobby for them.
- This exist because SUPERB will disintegrate if our budget decreases anymore. SUPERB has friends in many places because we provide entertainment indiscriminately. There are people in the Senate who lobby for us but the truth is we obviously don't have enough people lobbying in our favor because otherwise our budget would be higher to begin with and we wouldn't need to reach out for extra funds. Those Senators who sponsored the bill and voted to put it on the ballot? They don't exist. Any group could do it. Really. And no group ever has to reach out for extra funds. Except for us, of course, and our puny $100,000 budget.
We really appreciate that you care enough to ask and on a finally note all we want to do is entertain people. We would be doing the campus a major disservice if our events or services disappeared. We're just that important.
Remember, Einerson brought us the awesome op-ed from last year, too.
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