In his latest version of the A.S. budget, A.S. President Christopher Sweeten called for reductions to student-initiated outreach and the Academic Success Program in order to increase funding to student organizations.
Sweeten proposed a $2,000 cut to outreach, from $41,000 this year to $39,000 in 2005-06. Originally, Sweeten had planned no cuts to the line item.
The money, which is appropriated by the Student Initiated Outreach Resource Council, provides support services to disadvantaged high school students and also works as a retention tool to aid students on campus.
Although outreach and retention should be a top priority for the A.S. Council, Vice President External Kevin Mann said, the outreach budget cuts were necessary.
“[A.S. members] all knew that we didn’t want to reduce SIO, but we had to do it,” he said. “We’re getting cut across the board. It’s hard to weigh on one hand our students and on the other hand the community of San Diego.”
ASP, which focuses on student retention, will also face a reduction from a budget of $42,000 this year to $40,000 in 2005-06 under the plan. Savings from the two reductions will be distributed to student organizations through the $291,750 Student Orgs Unallocated account. All student organizations and college councils will be able to pull funds from that pot for events and operations.
While the cut to his program is unfortunate, ASP Executive Director Terry Le said that providing more funding to student organizations is a worthy cause.
“In my personal view, I feel that student orgs should be given the freedom to put on the events they want to do,” he said. “There is a strong connection between ASP and student orgs regarding retention. In my mind, at least the cuts from ASP go to student orgs.”
Mann shared similar sentiments and said the $4,000 addition to the unallocated line item was an important budget move.
“If SIO had to be cut, then the only place I could see that money going back to was Student Orgs Unallocated,” Mann said. “I would rather not see SIO get cut, but I think the next priority would be to have the money go back to the student organizations.”
Despite funding decreases, ASP will still be able to conduct normal operations such as mentoring programs, he said.
However, continued budget cuts will hurt ASP growth, such as the effectiveness of a new office planned for the Price Center expansion to be completed in 2008, Le added.
The proposed budget would also eliminate A.S. stipends for some members, including all college senators and the A.S. elections manager. Last year, A.S. Elections Manager Steve York received a weekly $20 stipend for 10 weeks.
“I think that for my year, I viewed the $20 a week as symbolic for several dozen hours worth of work a week,” York said. “It’s ridiculous to continue to have these positions where you cut the stipends completely and load the work on them.”
York, who was the only person to apply for the position this year, said he would support cutting all stipends for the sake of uniformity.
“Personally, I would still take the job without the stipend,” he said. “What the hell is $200 going to do in the end anyway? But when you’ve cut so many stipends out, it should be across the board for executives, too. I think it’s funny that everyone scoffed at the SunGod Party’s suggestion to cut stipends entirely, but now it’s become a reality for many positions.”
Under the plan, A.S. executive officers are taking stipend cuts, including a 7-percent reduction for A.S. president and 5-percent cuts for vice president internal, vice president external, vice president of academic affairs and vice president finance.
The council is expected to vote on the final proposal at Wednesday’s A.S. meeting.
