After deliberations that lasted into the early morning, the A.S. Council unanimously passed the 2006-07 budget. But behind the approval, there was still ambivalence regarding the budget’s outcome, especially regarding A.S. President Harry Khanna’s adjustments to the funding of college events.
A.S. President Harry Khanna makes a case for his budget proposal at the longest A.S. Council meeting this year. The budget includes larger appropriations for “tradition events” such as Thurgood Marshall College’s Cultural Celebration.
On one side, Vice President Finance Conrad Ohashi thought the unanimous decision spoke for itself. However, other nonvoting councilmembers said that if they had a vote, they would have rejected the budget.
“I’m disappointed that the budget doesn’t value the role of the colleges at UCSD,” A.S. Commissioner of Student Advocacy Travis Silva said in opposition.
A large portion of the A.S. budget meeting was spent debating the funding for the annual Thurgood Marshall College Cultural Celebration.
The part of the meeting reserved for public input was dominated by requests to allocate more money to the event, which celebrates diversity and takes place on the Thurgood Marshall College campus annually. The public presentation was led by former Marshall Junior Senator Jason M. Hoskins.
“We’re only talking about it and fighting over it because of a silly name,” Hoskins said.
He suggested that the current name of the event be changed to “UCSD Cultural Celebration” because the name inaccurately represented the event’s purpose as a campus-wide celebration of the university’s diversity.This year, Khanna proposed a budget cut of $3,000 to the event, decreased from the $7,000 allocated last year. This year, the event was labeled a “tradition event” and funded alongside events such as the Kaibigang Pilipino Cultural Celebration, spurring critics to question the funding of the event through the campus-wide budget while being heavily connected to Marshall.
Silva proposed to increase the funding of the Cultural Celebration to $7,250 and follow Hoskins’ suggestion to change the event’s name.
The council debated over what events could afford less funding in lieu of money for the Cultural Celebration. After a two-and-a-half-hour debate, the council cut funding from the Undergraduate Student Experience and Satisfaction Committee, A.S. “cart maintenance,” Muir Musical and the Committee for World Democracy Film Series in order to increase the funding for the Cultural Celebration to $6,350. Another attempt to inflate the event’s budget by taking an additional $900 from student organization funding failed by majority.
The Cultural Celebration was not the only heavily debated topic at the meeting — the council also scrutinized the Kaibigang Pilipino Cultural Celebration’s proposed allocation of $18,000. Interim Earl Warren College Senior Senator Josh Martino moved to reallocate $3,000 from the celebration to the A.S. Midnight Pancake Breakfast, an unofficial project of the Academic Affairs Office, but it failed by majority.
The initial budget draft had cut Marshall Cultural Celebration about 50 percent, whereas most other events had been cut between 10 and 25 percent. After the final meeting, the event ended up with a 12-percent cut compared to last year. Silva called the budget “a fair and balanced compromise.”
Ohashi said that the biggest factor in the Marshall Cultural Celebration funding issue was the idea that the Marshall Student Council had successfully passed a fee referendum that included a guarantee for additional Cultural Celebration funding.
The debate over the event also reflects “the council’s genuine concern for our constituency,” according to A.S. Vice President Internal Janine Dellomes.
