During an informal town hall meeting this week in Price Center, new A.S. President Marco Murillo fielded suggestions and critiques of his budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year, which includes cuts to programs such as Safe Ride and tradition events but increases to A.S. student salaries.
Councilmembers gathered around A.S. President Marco Murillo to debate allocations in his proposed budget for next year, which includes cuts to Safe Ride and tradition events.
Associate Vice President of Programming Di Lam, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Long Pham, Vice President of Finances and Resources Sarah Chang and Thurgood Marshall College Senator Kyle Samia were among the most vocal councilmembers present.
Murillo said at last week’s council meeting that his budget would be on the conservative side as a response to an over-allocation of funds by the 2006-07 A.S. administration. Compared to the $85,000 surplus in campus activity fees that carried over to the previous council, only $40,000 will carry over this year. As such, Murillo has proposed considerable cuts to various services.
During the meeting, the A.S. Council-sponsored Safe Ride program came under fire. Lam supported the proposed $5,000 decrease in funding to the program, and said that it was an inadequately used service. Out of the $28,000 allocated to Safe Ride this year, only $10,000 was spent, and a “”ridiculous”” amount – $6,000 – was spent over the Sun God weekend, for a total of $16,000.
Chang, however, encouraged the continued support of the service, which has recently expanded its operation to Thursdays.
Others agreed, and said that the bulk of advertising occurred through word of mouth, and a large potential target audience, including fraternities and sororities, is still underutilized.
“”With greater publicity, A.S. Safe Ride could be really big,”” Chang said.
However, Lam’s request to transfer the $5,000 cut from Safe Ride into the annual all-campus dance was supported and passed.
Samia suggested cutting funding to “”spirit squad”” Triton Tide.
“”If they are only athletics promotion, then the athletic department can foot the bill,”” Samia said.
He argued that the A.S. Council shouldn’t exclusively fund the promotion of certain organizations, but should instead represent the student body equally. However, Chang disputed Samia’s argument that the athletic department received a “”huge increase”” in funding because the athletics fee referendum passed.
The referendum money has “”explicit channels,”” she said, and cannot be used for everything that falls under the “”athletic”” blanket. Chang supported an increase to the Triton Tide budget because of its “”bigger initiative for spirit,”” and an increased agenda.
Samia suggested the expansion of Triton Tide’s scope toward all-campus spirit, instead of limiting it to athletics. Ultimately, no cuts were made, although Murillo said he would investigate Triton Tide’s funding.
Lam expressed frustration at the many problems with college festivals, which were organized through A.S. programming last year.
“”I’ve had agents call and scream at me, [due to contract problems]”” Lam said.
Proposed funding for college festivals has increased to $21,000, from $18,107.25.
Samia advocated “”tacking an A.S. logo”” onto the various college festivals if A.S. Council is funding them. Lam agreed, using the logo “”Muir College presents Muirstock”” as an example.
Samia also suggested that approximately $3,000, originally allocated for college festivals, be transferred to Sun God.
“”After this year, we noticed that everything in Sun God needs more funding,”” Lam said.
Lam proposed an increase in security measures, which she said would cost a “”couple thousand more.””
Lam said the Sun God festival would be even more difficult to host next year, and needs a “”$10,000 increase at least.”” She also advised selling fewer tickets, because “”off-campus people were the biggest problem”” for this year’s event. The A.S. Council will have to think about whether future Sun God festivals would be UCSD community events or public events, she said.
However, making Sun God a public event would not bring in other funding sources outside of the A.S. Council because the “”administration hates the event as it is,”” Lam said.
Chang then introduced the controversial topic of “”tradition events.””
The events, including staples such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Allies dances and culture shows, face considerable cuts in funding.
LGBTQIA faces a $200 cut, while RAZA awareness week will see a loss of $500 and $1,170 will be cut from the Committee for World Democracy Film Series.
In addition, A.S. Council administrative staff salaries have been cut by around $2,740, though administrative student salaries have been increased by $10,190.
Murillo will turn in the final draft of his budget on May 25.
