The Stanford Flipside has recently begun a Special Fees petition in order to bypass the ASSU’s rejection of their original budget. The Flipside staff argue that they have decided to include a Segway in their budget as a way to bring to light the absurdity of what they see as other groups’ wasteful spending.

We would like to make an appeal to the Flipside staff: asking students for money you do not need in order to protest that very act is NOT the way to go about making this statement. You have a popular publication. Use words as your tool to change opinion; do not engage in wasteful spending yourself.

It is the job of the ASSU Appropriations Committee to negotiate with groups’ financial officers to cut the budgets down as much as possible and to make sure groups’ budgets are not hidden to Special Fees voters. It is fair to say that at least the vast majority of wasteful spending in student groups is filtered in this process. Obviously, the Flipside knows this from experience.

On the other hand, remember this when you look through other groups’ budgets: just because something is expensive does not necessarily mean that it is wasteful. As the financial and marketing staff of Cardinal Ballet, we understand this (tutus are not cheap), and the Flipside must understand this as well.

Flipside: if you have a problem with a group’s budget, contact that group’s financial officer directly or talk to the Appropriations Committee. If they do not budge, let your criticism be known in your publication — maybe a few hundred swayed opinions on the part of the student body will change that group’s mind on that one line item in their budget.

We love the Flipside, and we would love to vote for an ASSU-approved budget that is not wasteful. Please lose the Segway and start using your publication to get your word out. Stanford students: please understand that when you sign a Special Fees petition, you have gone beyond the realm of a joke and into making decisions about real money.

Megan Kanne ’12 and Colette Posse ‘12