Three years after the approval of its first activity fee, Earl Warren
College is out again with
its hat in hand, asking students to front supposed funding deficiencies. In
2004, a college referendum virtually tripled the amount of money available to
the Warren College Student Council. This year, the council would reap an
additional $26,000 if students approve the fee hike.

The money will be targeted mainly for programming use, Warren College
Parliamentarian Dan Palay says, which includes Warren Live! and its events
board. At $14,400, the latter gobbles up the largest chunk of the college’s
budget. Inflation is Palay’s explanation for the referendum; 2004’s
$4-per-quarter charge has apparently grown stale in three years, so it’s back
to students to carry the fiscal weight. It’s doubtful that an extra $3 per
quarter is financially unbearable for any student, but it’s also doubtful that
three years of inflation have completely depleted the college’s funds.
Construction and gas costs are the most vulnerable to inflation, not concerts.
The regular rate of inflation is at most a 3- to 4-percent increase each year,
not the over 50-percent increase that the referendum would entail.

Another of Palay’s cited reasons: Warren currently charges the lowest
per-student activity fee of UCSD’s six colleges. However, the college also
boasts the campus’ largest enrollment figures. It’s the principle that matters
most here: What other avenues of budget tightening have been explored? What
extra fat could have been sliced off before asking students to shoulder another
fee hike?

It’s a shame that WCSC was too myopic in vision to expect these financial
problems and settle them three years ago with the original referendum.