Bid for O'Brien appearance waste of ASMSU tax dollars

As I read the latest article on ASMSU from The State News, ASMSU discusses possible Conan O’Brien appearance at Breslin (SN 2/25), I was confused and appalled by the decision from MSU’s undergraduate student government to bid $150,000 to bring the former “Tonight Show” host to MSU. In fact, according to the article, the Student Assembly is willing to pay $225,000 for O’Brien and related costs. Also, apparently ASMSU wants to attract O’Brien so much that they feel it is necessary to allocate funds from the association’s risk management fund. All this money in one of the most difficult economic climates this university has seen.

While ASMSU has made available $225,000 to pay O’Brien for a couple of hours of entertainment, MSU is struggling with cuts that not only challenge faculty and administrators but are felt most profoundly by students who have to keep up with increasing tuition rates. On the other hand, I feel that, if any financial transaction were to occur, O’Brien should be the one giving money to the university and the students since he, reportedly, got a nice $33 million paycheck for leaving “The Tonight Show.” Still, ASMSU apparently thinks that, since the unemployment rate is high, employing O’Brien would help the economy.

Well, no. The MSU undergraduate population is the one in need of a bailout, serious stimulus money and jobs. We should not be paying for this. ASMSU should not even be thinking of spending on this. What the association needs to be thinking about is how they can focus their resources to help the students. Personally, I couldn’t care less for all these activities and honestly, I believe they are a waste of money. Alternatively, these funds should go toward relevant services and support for the students. For example, as the university cuts teaching assistants, it would be appropriate for ASMSU to approach academic departments and look for ways the association can help them since TAs, ultimately, have a real impact on our undergraduate education.

There are many ways in which ASMSU can collaborate to improve our undergraduate education. I believe there are already plenty of opportunities for entertainment on and off campus. But, once again, these areas where the university is cutting funds are areas where ASMSU could, and should, step up in order to minimize the impact of the cuts on our education. As they say, “necessity is the mother of innovation,” and there is no reason why the association should not think more creatively about the ways it can serve MSU’s undergraduate students.

Meanwhile, the association keeps promoting increasing its tax to fund a readership program that only caters to the needs of newspaper companies that need to sustain publication sales in order to absorb the impact that Internet access has had on their control of information. Personally, I urge ASMSU to focus on the current needs of the undergraduate population given the economic climate and to forget about O’Brien because, in the end, we still will need an education and O’Brien will go back to his mansion in California.

Eduardo Bonar,
economics junior