When I think of the word “autonomous,” the first thing that pops into my head is independence. The word “autonomous” has been tossed around in recent USG discussions when talking about student organizations. All of these discussions boil down to one simple question: Can a student organization be autonomous if it receives USG funding? The answer: of course it can.

Just because an organization receives funding from USG does not mean that USG has absolute authority and control over that organization. Yes, USG does have the authority over the funding itself, but that is it. Student organizations can act with a certain degree of freedom and autonomy even while receiving these funds.

There are some senators on USG who believe that USG funds eliminate the autonomy of student organizations. At face value, this would seem to make sense. How can one be truly autonomous if its funding comes from another source? But this logic is also a fallacy.

This can be explained through a real world example. Public Broadcast Radio (PBR) is a publicly funded entity.  By definition, then, it receives state funds in order to function as it does. This does not give the President or any state official, however, the right to dictate what content should be played on PBR. In that sense, PBR is an autonomous organization.

Furthermore, PBR has a constitutional right to decide for itself what content it would like to distribute to its listeners. That is another way in which PBR is, and should continue to remain, an autonomous entity.

Now, why has this issue over autonomy been so controversial? It has to do with student organizations being able to pay their members for their service. USG funds are made up of the student activity fee that every student must pay each quarter. USG then uses these fees to provide funding for student organizations.

Many USG senators do not want these USG funds to go towards an organization’s payroll, though. I agree with that 100 percent. We all have to pay the student activity fee, and no student should be forced to pay someone’s payroll with a required fee.

However, if that organization does not pay its members with USG funds but with outside sources that the organization independently acquired, then USG has little reason to get upset. Should any student organization have the drive and will to secure outside funding so that it can pay its members for their hard work, then we should applaud and congratulate that group. We shouldn’t be limiting the potential of our organizations just because their members get paid.

Some senators have raised the argument that because student organizations receive USG funds, they are able to seek outside sources for additional revenue. In other words, the organization exists because of USG funding and cannot pay its members with outside money because it is originally due to the USG funding. This is a tremendous error in thinking. This argument carries with it a separate consequence which is that organizations will lose all sense of innovation, creativity and independence if they feel so controlled by USG.

I should note that as of now, there is only one student organization that pays its members: the Clarion. The Clarion has a dedicated business team that works to sell advertisements for additional revenue. It is through this revenue that the Clarion members are paid, not with the funding that is provided by USG. USG funds are only used for the printing costs and maintenance of the website.

Because some senators cannot see that the Clarion can receive USG funding and remain autonomous, there have been talks to cut the Clarion funding because it pays its members. The incentive that the little pay that Clarion members do receive helps make the paper turn out the way it does each week.

Without that pay, the quality of the Clarion would most definitely diminish. Don’t punish a student organization for wanting to go above and beyond what’s expected of it by cutting its funding because its members get paid.