When UCSD students rejected the Campus Life Fee Referendum two weeks ago, they were making a statement to the administration: Students want to decide how their tuition dollars are to be spent, not the administration. The students voted down the option of increasing tuition by $210 to improve student life on campus, which included the expansion of the Price Center.
Regardless, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph Watson felt the expansion was still necessary and he advocated a 10 percent decrease in funding for student services in his budget. The Guardian feels implementing this plan would be disastrous for the administration, because students would erupt over the decrease in services available to them and the lack of control they had over their funds.
We think the administration was correct in its decision to postpone a final decision on how to expand Price Center as the options currently debated fail to satisfactorily solve the problem.
Implementing Watson’s idea of decreasing funding to student services comes at no worse time, because our school is in the process of expanding enrollment.
The administration needs to give more money to fund these services and certainly should not take money away. We believe students should not have to suffer from a lack of services so students of the future can have more food options and shorter lines. In addition, the plan would cause staff members from some departments, such as the dean’s offices, to be laid off to free up money. That is not right either.
Keeping the budgets of student services the same next year and spending extra time to come up with a solution for the expansion is in the best interest of both the students and the administration. Spending an extra year to decide will give students a chance to propose another fee referendum, if that is what they chose to do, and it will give the administration a chance to derive a better plan that makes all parties happy.
Members of the new A.S. Council have already discussed having a new referendum for next year if they get the support of the student body. The referendum would most likely just include the expansion of the University Centers and therefore would cost considerably less money to students.
The Guardian feels that an increase in tuition by $10 is a lot better than a decrease in student services like Student Health by 10 percent.
Most services are underbudgeted to begin with, and implementing this plan would make problems dramatically worse. More importantly than the University Centers expansion itself, the Guardian believes that funding for all student services under Watson, such as Student Disabilities, Student Organizations and Leadership Opportunities, and Psychological Services should not decrease.
