By: Melissa Caceres/News Director
The two days of discussion within the University Wide Council on the disbursement of the $13 million of Activity & Service Fee have come to a close. The result: a tentative budget set for around 30 University wide organizations and facilities.
U-Wide Budget Deliberations, which involved a total of around 13 hours of debate throughout Feb. 15 and Feb. 18, ended with most of the Council and administrative advisers satisfied.
“I’m going to be honest and say that I’m comfortable with this budget even if we don’t get an increase in A&S funds,” said Patrick O’Keefe, Student Government Council president at the Modesto Maidique Campus. “I feel like this budget will provide everyone with more opportunities.”
Despite the satisfaction, numerous topics triggered disputes during the deliberations between council members as to who should get what amount of money from the pool of A&S funds.
The Council is composed of each campus’ president, vice president, speaker of the senate, comptroller from SGC-MMC and SGC at Biscayne Bay Campus and the speaker pro tempore from SGC-MMC.
The amounts decided upon by the Council are preliminary since they must still be reviewed by the Student Government Senates from both campuses, Vice President of Student Affairs Rosa Jones and University President Mark Rosenberg.
Also a factor is the potential increase in the A&S fee that is to be decided upon by the Activity & Service Fee Committee. Depending on the increase percentage, SGA could be given between $958,000 to $2.4 million of additional funds to give to certain organizations.
The 2012-2013 projected revenue in A&S funds is $12,906,460, though minus some University salaries, the Council had $10,760,955 to work with.
“You need to put your dollars where your priorities are,” said Matilde Gramling, director of budget and personnel for the department of student affairs, to the Council.
Directors and assistant directors of Campus Life from both campuses were also present to advise the Council.
The “Top Five” recipients were the first to be discussed because they are the five that will receive their base funding. They are comprised of facilities such as the Graham Center, Wolfe University Center, MMC Rec Center, BBC Rec Center and the Center for Leadership and Service.
During the first day of deliberations, tensions arose when CLS was brought up among the Council.
Emilio Collyer, BBC vice president, and Samir Patel, speaker pro tempore from SGC-MMC, supported substantial increases to the CLS budget and adding coordinators to the organization.
“We’ve left them in the back burner in the past years,” said Patel, who credited the CLS-regulated Alternative Breaks program for his personal development as a student.
O’Keefe didn’t support funding a new coordinator, because it would take a way a bulk of the money from all of the other groups.
“We just can’t afford it,” said Dawson.
A lengthy discussion ensued on the issue, with Collyer attempting to continuously vote down the proposed amount until CLS was allocated more money.
The Council settled in giving CLS $162,750 of their requested $312,585.
With several renovations being planned, every member of the Council agreed that the WUC needed to be given their asking amount of $1,711,554.
A recurring theme throughout the allocations was the need for other University entities to be responsible for funding certain programs, instead of A&S fees that come from students.
The Honors College was given $8,000 after requesting $20,650. SGC-BBC President Denise Halpin was vocal about questioning why the Honors College was the only academic college that SGA provides funds to.
“Why are we funding one college and not the rest?” said Halpin.
MMC Comptroller Cristina Loreto added that not every student benefits from Honors College programs.
The FIU Marching Band was brought up into question as an organization that SGA must pick up the tab for. The Council mentioned that Athletics should be providing them funds for expenditures like traveling to bowl games.
The only program to receive zero funding was the New York Times Readership Program, which requested $14,000.
“It has always been a burden,” said Udhnani. “One thing that we always agree on is that the numbers never add up when they give them to us.”
A unanimous vote lead the Council to not appropriate any funds for the program.
“We understand that we want to provide services for our students but if we can’t even fully fund our own student media then why are we funding another entity where the main reason that they use it is for class,” said O’Keefe.
All-Nighter for the Poor, Dance Marathon and Relay for Life charity programs received the same amount as the year before or less than they requested.
“I’m open to listening to [Senate] on their opinions,” said O’Keefe. “Though I feel good about how our budget stands without the fee increase.”
Campus-specific hearings and deliberations will take place throughout the following two weeks.
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