So, this is the response I got from our class officer, I think its quite innappropriate. Oh, and by the way, the fee is not stated anywhere-- they made it up on the spot and then called it mandatory.
I am amazed by people's stupidity! Does this warrant a meeting with the administration?
(Names and other identifying info have been omitted)
Dear friends:
Thanks to all of you who succesfully payed your dues this past week. It has been quite lucrative. However, there is an outstanding number of persons who have yet to pay their class fees, and our Halloween bash(one of largest expense of year) is rapidly approaching. For this reason, I am asking that all of you pay the fee by friday the 13th.
It has recently come to my attention that a few persons of the class don't particularly want to participate in this mandatory fee stating a variety of reasons why they shouldnt have to pay. I would like to take a brief moment to dispel some of the misconceptions Ive been hearing. Primarily I would like to state that this is a mandatory fee regardless of whether you want your class tshirt, want to use lounge supplies, want to come to our parties, want to contribute to supplementary expense for the funerals of our cadavers, to school BBQs, and orientation activies for next year, or whatever else it may be. In this great country we live in, we all must pay national taxes. The majority of this does not go directly to things we may use. Interstates are worked on and repaired all over the nation, often using our money. Is it fair that these roads are built with the help of us when it is likely we will never see or use these? The answer is yes, because our taxes our going to the bettering of our nation. Analogolously, these fees are going to our class to provide for the things we need and to better a variety aspects of our medical educations. Therefore any individuals who are not participating in class activities a will not be excluded from any portion of the fees. I apologize for being so uncompromising with this, but I've discussed this issue throughly with last years class officers, who I might mention had no problems collecting all class dues.
Not drinking alcohol is not an exception to any portion of the class fees. Any of the big parties we have, where we must reserve a venue will typically have a minimum bar tab. Therefore, those who are not drinking will not be contributing to the fulfillment of this tab, nor will their non-drinking friends. If we do not meet this minimum tab we will be forced to actually take out of our funds to fulfill this requirment. In other words, not drinking actually may suck funds out of our class account. I am in no way endorsing the consumption of alcohol to help meet this fee, but simply emphasizing the fact that individuals not drinking should not be entitled to lower fees.
We have families in our class, along with the rest of us, who are accruing large debts while going to school, and still supporting their family who have had no issues paying this fee. But alas, there may be extenuating circumstance that I am not aware of. If this is the case with anybody, I would ask you to please set up a meeting with me, and we can discuss some sort of payment plan that will accomodate your tight budgets. It seems ridiculous to have to explicitly state, but if you dont have these fees because you opted to not taken out loans, this is also not an excuse. If your in this category I would ask you to reflect on the rest of us who were forced to take out loans and now are already 30000 dollars or more in debt than you are, and then decide if a 75 dollar accrument of debt will really be catastrophic.
Lastly, if you are seriously interested in doing some type of fundraising in order to fulfill your fees. You are fully allowed to do this, but the fact of the matter is that schoolwork is enough of a workload for the most of us as it is, and fundraising may not sound like the most valuable way to spend your time. However, if this time is not valuable to you as the 75$ please send me an email. I will collect the number of people who would like to do this and set up a meeting with them so they can discuss some ways to raise their fees. The Class vice president has kindly offered to pay anybody who might be interested in fundraising at his house: he will be offering money for chores completed at his house.or other small favors. If you think I'm joking, I assure you he would pay your for doing any of this work. So that's always an option.
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