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Red tape on a smaller scale
Feb. 3rd, 2005 09:44 pmI'm part of this "prestigious" senior honors society named Mortar Board. One of the member requirements is to do four community service activities. Cause you know, that's what honorable people do. Of course, one of the things that my scheming roommate and I have discussed is that whether or not it's good for it to be set up like that, the reason being that people do it because they have to do it. Shouldn't people do it because they want to do it? Then again, if that were the case, then nothing might get done. Better have people do it to pad their resumes than nothing get done at all. It's not going to make a difference to the kid.
Incidentally, should we complain when any politician raises money for disaster relief or community food banks? I mean, sure, some of them do it to get votes, but is that really a bad thing?
Oh, I'm in this mood because I went to volunteer for this Mom's Study Night at a nearby Presbyterian church. The idea was that some volunteers take care of some kids for single moms, so they could get at least two or three hours of good studying done. As usual, the resiliency of kids always amazes me. And they're entertained by the most mundane things. Ah, if only throwing a ball around was as fun as it used to be.
But afterwards, I talked to the lady who was trying to get start a campus organization for the group (coincidentally, she was the sister of a fellow leadership team member of the BSU). Well, she met the right person because I'm the Bills Chair of the Financial Appropriations Committee, the person who is in charge of dealing with funding new organizations (funny how the good Lord works). She was pleasantly surprised that of all people I happened to be one of the volunteers. So I talked to her a little to gather more information about her group. Unfortunately, one piece of information made it a moot point to ask for money from our student association.
They had to meet off campus.
According to the dean of student affairs, this organization could not meet on campus because of child liability regulations. This would kill the need for most of the money because we have a specific provision in our funding guidelines that prohibits giving any money for off campus activities. I guess someone a long time ago abused the money in some way, and now it cuts both ways. I know many service organizations are inconvenienced by this provision.
On the flip side, I know that the student association can't afford to pay for everyone's bowling trips or off campus volunteering activities. Furthermore, we restrict the money to be only used on TU students, so strictly speaking the money couldn't have been used for the children anyways (won't someone think of the children...sorry I couldn't resist). Oh yeah, the cynic inside of me says we shouldn't be paying for an alternative to babysitting in any case.
It's red tape on a smaller scale, yet it still makes me sigh.
Incidentally, should we complain when any politician raises money for disaster relief or community food banks? I mean, sure, some of them do it to get votes, but is that really a bad thing?
Oh, I'm in this mood because I went to volunteer for this Mom's Study Night at a nearby Presbyterian church. The idea was that some volunteers take care of some kids for single moms, so they could get at least two or three hours of good studying done. As usual, the resiliency of kids always amazes me. And they're entertained by the most mundane things. Ah, if only throwing a ball around was as fun as it used to be.
But afterwards, I talked to the lady who was trying to get start a campus organization for the group (coincidentally, she was the sister of a fellow leadership team member of the BSU). Well, she met the right person because I'm the Bills Chair of the Financial Appropriations Committee, the person who is in charge of dealing with funding new organizations (funny how the good Lord works). She was pleasantly surprised that of all people I happened to be one of the volunteers. So I talked to her a little to gather more information about her group. Unfortunately, one piece of information made it a moot point to ask for money from our student association.
They had to meet off campus.
According to the dean of student affairs, this organization could not meet on campus because of child liability regulations. This would kill the need for most of the money because we have a specific provision in our funding guidelines that prohibits giving any money for off campus activities. I guess someone a long time ago abused the money in some way, and now it cuts both ways. I know many service organizations are inconvenienced by this provision.
On the flip side, I know that the student association can't afford to pay for everyone's bowling trips or off campus volunteering activities. Furthermore, we restrict the money to be only used on TU students, so strictly speaking the money couldn't have been used for the children anyways (won't someone think of the children...sorry I couldn't resist). Oh yeah, the cynic inside of me says we shouldn't be paying for an alternative to babysitting in any case.
It's red tape on a smaller scale, yet it still makes me sigh.
