Avoiding budget cuts that would have forced the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services to shut down many free tutoring services next quarter, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox decided this week to temporarily restore limited funding for the program. She has begun talks with other administrators about a long-term plan to prevent future cuts.

The cuts, which amount to nearly $150,000, would have forced O.A.S.I.S. to close several tutoring workshops, including programs for physics, genetics and upper-division chemistry classes, and would have affected hundreds of students who use the office’s services, according to O.A.S.I.S. Director Patrick Velasquez.

Velasquez stated in an e-mail that, in order to prevent workshop closures, Fox and other administrators transferred $26,000 from the yearly budget of Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Educational Advancement Loren C. Thompson as an emergency supplement for O.A.S.I.S.’ spring programs. The action will cause a deficit in Thompson’s yearly funding package for the Student Educational Advancement cluster, the administrative division that houses O.A.S.I.S. According to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph W. Watson, Velasquez and Thompson jointly agreed upon the amount.

However, the funding transfer is only a temporary solution, and a $46,000 budget cut for next year is still set to take place, according to Velasquez, who also indicated that cuts have already forced the office to lay off two staff members.

“To date, there has been nothing approximating a commitment to restore the $146,000 that has been cut from O.A.S.I.S. or to cancel the scheduled $46,000 reduction for next school year,” Velasquez wrote in a letter to A.S. President Christopher Sweeten.

Originally, Watson ordered the cuts as part of a vast reduction in funding to all divisions of Student Affairs, except the Office of Students with Disabilities, as a result of the state’s budget crisis several years ago.

The budget cuts reflected the administration’s doubts over the office’s ability to actually help students improve their academic performance. Although funding has been temporarily restored, Watson indicated that the administration still wants evidence of the office’s role in improving student academic performance.

“There is a need for a campus understanding on the goals, objectives and priorities of the academic support programs at UCSD, how they are coordinated with the academic courses and their instructors and how program impacts should be assessed individually and collectively,” Watson stated in an e-mail.

When O.A.S.I.S. revealed that the cuts would force workshops to shut down, many students were angered that they would no longer be able to utilize the office’s free services. In response, staff and students organized a two-day protest on Library Walk last week, complete with outdoor tutoring sessions, to decry what they called the administration’s neglect of the academic support office.

Beyond the office, many other student groups also began their own campaigns against O.A.S.I.S. cuts.

The A.S. Council recently passed a unanimous resolution condemning the administration’s decision to cut funding and demanding that it be restored. Sweeten also met with Fox on March 10 to address student concerns about program closures.

“Chancellor Fox was not reluctant to listen to students on this issue,” Sweeten stated in an e-mail. “She was very receptive and listened with open ears. The outcome of the talk

went smoothly … The voice of the student did not go unheard and the restored funding is evidence of that.”

A.S. Vice President of Academic Affairs Harry Khanna indicated that the resolution played a decisive role in Fox’s decision to grant temporary funding.

“I think it was clear that A.S. needed to show that the student government [would] not allow such a poor decision on the part of Student Affairs to go unchallenged,” he stated in an e-mail.

Members of the Student Affirmative Action Committee, which had been working on restoring funding since last year, also met with administrators to express concerns about O.A.S.I.S. funding cuts, according to Kyle Samia, the SAAC representative to the A.S. Council.

Samia said that the decision to restore money to O.A.S.I.S. was beneficial to all students at UCSD.

“O.A.S.I.S. is a vital campus program,” he said.

However, the most influential factor in the university’s decision to transfer money to the office was the letters received by the administration from students who would not be able to continue workshops next quarter, according to Watson.

Velasquez also stated that, in a meeting with the chancellor, Fox indicated that alumni concerns about O.A.S.I.S. cuts were also an important part of the decision, as several alumni revealed that the office’s tutoring services had actually helped them graduate from the university.

UCSD alumnus Juan Astorga, while happy that a temporary answer to the office’s budget problems has been found, stated in an e-mail to the chancellor that a short-term solution is not enough.

“Please know that we will continue with our alumni letter-writing campaign both to UCSD and state officials until O.A.S.I.S. funding is returned and a plan of action is developed with actual dollar amounts attached to it,” Astorga stated.

Watson is in charge of developing a long-term plan to bolster O.A.S.I.S. funding, according to Velasquez.

Readers can contact Matthew McArdle at [email protected].