According to the Binghamton University Web site, there are 11,515 undergraduates and 2,920 graduate students at BU.
Of course, Off Campus College Transport and the blue buses it runs are vital to all students, graduate and undergraduate alike. The uproar caused by the possibility the buses would shut down this month, when that was still a possibility, made that clear if there was any doubt.
On Monday, the Student Association, which represents BU’s undergrads, was informed that the tax error that left OCCT in financial limbo had been retroactively corrected to when it was made, 24 years ago (see Page 1). That, according to Matt Landau, SA president and chair of the OCCT board of directors, was the major hurdle in ensuring OCCT’s long-term viability.
The Graduate Student Organization and its president, Jessie Kapasula, however, have felt the GSO has been left in the dark about negotiations to keep OCCT running.
We do acknowledge that the GSO and its concerns can, at times, be swept under the rug, unfairly so. However, in this instance, the GSO worked itself up more than necessary.
The SA gives $300,000 a year to OCCT, and the GSO $30,000 — the negotiations between the SA and the University dealt with, among other issues, all the money the SA put out to keep OCCT running while the tax issue festered. The GSO has no right to be involved in negotiations that, as portrayed to Pipe Dream, did not involve the GSO financially.
Granted, the GSO likely doesn’t have that kind of money to put toward OCCT, nor should it. But that’s indicative of the reality of the situation. As much as graduate students would be affected by an OCCT shut down, undergrads would be affected more so — nearly four-fold in terms of number of people, and ten-fold in terms of money contributed.
According to Kapasula, about 40 percent of classes are taught by graduate students. They’re an integral part of the University. But let’s go back to the math for a minute.
With the SA giving so much more money to OCCT than the GSO, and so many more students enrolled as undergraduates than graduates, OCCT is at the top of the SA’s agenda. There’s no way the SA can or would let OCCT be shut down. If that were to happen, the graduate students would have plenty of allies: all the undergrads.
Landau and the SA should keep the GSO informed of the general progress of things, that’s not unreasonable. But the GSO needs to be happy with that, and realize that it would probably be better off focusing on issues that are unique to its constituents and that it has a hand in.