General Election

Additional information for each question can be found below the next section.

Question 1: Should student leadership positions within Student Activity Fee Organizations be awarded cash honoraria for their volunteer work?

Every undergraduate pays a $96 Student Activity Fee (SAF) as part of their mandatory fees. This money goes towards student organizations on campus to help fund their events. There are 11 Student Activity Fee Organizations (SAFOs) that have a set annual budget along with other rights and privileges. More than 100 student leaders across the SAFOs are paid between $250-550 annually depending on their position. These honoraria payments cost a total of about $54,000 each year (5% of the total yearly SAF budget).

Pro: Honoraria payments are a "thank you" to the students who step up for SAFO leadership positions. These roles are not trivial to navigate and require a level of commitment, skill, and organization. Leaving a million dollars a year of students' money in the hands of other students should be enough to warrant a modest honoraria payment to thank them for their work. Additionally, honorarium provides some financial relief to student leaders who (because of the demands of their roles) are challenged to balance classes, org stuff, and a job.

Against: The $54,000 currently spent on paying student leaders in SAFOs could be more valuably spent directly on programming for organizations , not paying students. This would allow more student organizations to put on larger events. Only student leaders in the 11 SAFOs get paid for their work, leading to inequity for other, un-paid RSO leaders. This precedent makes it seem as though their work is less important or less difficult just because their organization does not have a standing budget. To ensure equity and provide the most benefit to all students, this money should go towards student organization events, not paying other students.

Question 2: Should electric scooters and similar electric mobility devices be prohibited from on-campus paths and walkways?

Pro: With an increase of electric mobility devices around campus and with students riding them on sidewalks, walkways, paths, and crosswalks the chances of accidents also increase, with several of these incidences already occurring. This can be easily avoided if these devices were prohibited from the same areas of campus where members of the UNH community were expected to walk. While this would force students to ride on the road, that is where bicycles and other vehicles that students use are forced to operate, and electric mobility devices should be put in the same category.

Against: Allowing electric scooters and other electric mobility devices on paths and walkways keeps students out of the streets and therefore out of the way of cars traveling around campus. Forcing electric scooters and other mobility devices into the road or bike lane could cause a larger volume of devices and vehicles in the road, potentially cluttering the bike lanes or causing issues for motorists on campus. Additionally, riding on the walkways and paths of campus shortens travel time for students. With the unpredictable and often cold winter weather in Durham, this shorter travel time is very beneficial to students traveling on campus.

Question 3: Should the Department of Housing opt to provide students with tuition-included laundry services as opposed to providing students with access to Xfinity (including HBO and Peacock)?

Pro: Removing the direct cost for laundry could help prevent students from spending larger sums of money on laundry each semester, especially those that do not live in close proximity to their home or another place where they can get laundry services at no cost. Laundry services with no direct cost to students would be more convenient as current methods of payment force students to transfer money to their Cat’s Cache, a process that can create barriers for students that do not have access to electronic forms of payment. Many students are not aware of the University’s access to Xfinity streaming services and therefore do not utilize them, while laundry is a task typically done on a regular basis.

Against: Xfinity streaming services provide students with a wide variety of on demand movies and TV shows as well as channel options in partnership with HBO Max and Peacock. This allows students to avoid costly fees for streaming services. Students may feel that access to Xfinity is of greater value because they do not spend a substantial amount of money paying for laundry services and would therefore opt to keep access to the streaming services currently offered by the University.

Question 4: Should Thanksgiving Break be extended to a full week (as opposed to the current Wednesday-Friday) in exchange for starting school earlier or reducing holidays and reading days to make up for the lost teaching/learning days?

The UNH Faculty Senate is responsible for creating and setting the academic calendar, which sets when University holidays occur. Currently, Thanksgiving Break spans from Wednesday to Friday. However, this model may make it hard for some out-of-state students to travel home and be with their families. In addition, some professors may also already cancel classes during this week, leading to an inequity amongst majors and those who take certain courses. The Faculty Senate is considering changing the holiday break timeline. If the Faculty Senate were to approve this change, they would need to take away other time off during the academic year to meet the minimum number of required class days.

Option 1: I would be in favor of the extension of Thanksgiving Break to become Monday-Friday, in which the Faculty Senate would remove Reading Days and other fall break days (ex. Mid-Semester Break) from the academic calendar.

Option 2: I would be in favor of the extension of Thanksgiving Break to become Monday-Friday, in which the Fall Semester would start a couple days to a week earlier in August.

Option 3: I would not be in favor of the extension of Thanksgiving Break, and I like the current Wednesday to Friday model, as well as the other long weekends during the fall semester.

Option 4: I would like to abstain from this question, or I do not care about this initiative.