Student groups feel economic pinch

By Genna Tan

In an economic climate where budget cuts quickly become the norm, Charted Student Organizations were the most recent recipients of funding reductions.

The pool of funds available for the eight CSOs has been reduced by 5 percent. The budget was reduced from $317,000 this year to $302,000 for the next academic year, said Matt Cameron, assistant vice provost for Student Life.

"It is not an automatic 5 percent reduction for each CSO, but their budgets should represent 5 percent less in funding," said Cameron. "It's a process that is a lot of give and take and listening to the leaders to make sure that the available funds can meet their needs as an organization."

President Michael Engh, S.J., spoke in front of an Associated Students senate meeting May 5, to describe the economic challenges facing the university. He also discussed other issues in his speech, including school pride, by directly addressing school spirit at sporting events.

Engh said that the university is facing the current economic challenges by raising money among alumni. $50,000 has gone towards emergency financial aid for students.

Immediately after his speech, the Student Activities Fee Committee made their recommendations for next year's CSO budget. The 5 percent reduction was mostly due to the economy and financial constraints, Jaison Mathew, SAFC liason, said.

"'»¿The Board of Trustees didn't want to raise fees and tuition more than they had to," said Cameron. "Every single department on campus is experiencing some sort of reallocation and less money to work with, so this is all part of the same process that everybody is going through on campus," said Cameron.

Activities Programming Board Director Courtney Jordan said the budgets cuts are reasonable.

"'»¿It's understandable given the economic situation that we are in and that the school is facing and with that in mind it's something that everybody in the school is going to take a hit for," said Jordan. "It will force our organization to be creative in how we book people and shows, and coming up with events that cost little to no money."

Multicultural Center Director Alicia Nguyen said she realized that the organization had to work with the minimum. She said that MCC Programing Board would find ways to conserve.

A result of SAFC's recommendations was the decision for Senior Ball to be cut out of next year's budget. The event will have to be handled by a separate committee because it does not reflect the AS mission because it only focuses on the senior class, Cameron said for SAFC.

Jennifer Heap, editor of The Redwood, said the budget reduction is reasonable.

"Five percent is not an incredible amount, and I don't think it's way too much to be cutting, especially with all that the university is doing in other areas," said Heap. "With the times that we're in, I think it's fair that certain areas like the CSOs receive a reasonable budget cut."

According to Heap, The Redwood can reduce expenses in areas like office supplies and conferences. ""Also, we can reduce conference fees because our staff typically doesn't go to a summer conference because our staff isn't made before the year starts, so that money can be put towards another retreat."

According to Heap, The Redwood has not been affected much by the budget cuts. Despite expectations that they would not sell as many books or senior ads this year, Heap said that they have sold record amounts.

A number of CSOs, like The Redwood, have self-generated revenue, so the budget is not the only way they can get funds, said Cameron.

'»¿"We have less money to allocate, so we listen to what the CSO leaders have to say and allocate accordingly," said Cameron. "The CSO leaders and their advisors and staff know their budgets the best, and have been very practical in submitting what they need. At the end of the day, we only have so much money to allocate, but we'll get there, there's no doubt about it."

According to Cameron, there was no increase for the 2008-2009 budget. The five percent reduction for next year's budget is an act of pragmatism.

"'»¿Part of reducing budgets now for next year is in anticipation that we will be able to hit the ground running and that it'll be a smooth transition," said Cameron.

Brittany Benjamin contributed to this report. Contact Genna Tan at (408) 554-4546 or gbtan@scu.edu.