New SA committee reallocates student monies

Office of Student Life units must adapt to changes

BY BRADLEY WOOTEN

After recommendations made by the Senate Finance Committee on how to allocate segregated fees to the six Office of Student Life units, a newly created Student Association committee examined budgets and redistributed a lump sum of money to the units.

The Office of Student Life Oversight Committee (OSLOC) was created in April and officials identified what they said are “gross over-expenditures of student monies.”

“Personally, when I look at a budget that has more than $200,000 being spent on a professional staff, with salary and benefits, students should be able to decide,” said SA President Samantha Prahl, who served on OSLOC last year and will again this year.

There is a regular funding process for units on campus fueled by segregated fees, which all students pay. For the OSL departments, which include Be On the Safe Side (BOSS), the Center for Volunteerism and Student Leadership (CVSL), the Lesbian Gay Bi Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center, LINKS Peer Mentoring Center, the Student Activities Office (SAO) and the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), this means they must annually present a case before the SFC for financing.

“We took a really close look at the budgets of all six units which is something the SA should have done a long time ago,” said Joe Ahlers, who sat on OSLOC from April through August. “Out of all the groups that are funded by (the SA), those are the six that are the closest connected to the SA – geographically because they’re in the Union and because they provide very unique student services.”

The SFC convenes each fall to allocate segregated fees. This committee then makes recommendations to the senate on how to allocate money.

Departments make presentations to the SFC to request funds for the following year. Last fall, the SFC was making decisions about budgets for the 2006-07 school year, which began July 1.

Usually by December, the OSL units are given their budgets so they can plan their resources for the year to come.

This year was unusual in that former SA president Russ Rueden vetoed the senate’s OSL allocations. Oversight of these units’ funding was given to OSLOC

Some of the OSL units suffered programming cuts while others suffered operational cuts. The CVSL and LGBT were the only two units that suffered cuts in programming, but all six units can apply for that funding.

The committee broke down each units’ expenditures to see where the money was being spent. OSLOC committee members said they found problems.

“We found people over spending money and problems from the dean of students’ office,” Ahlers said. “For what seems like years, the dean of students’ office has not overseen these units. They had gross overspending.”

Ahlers cited the CVSL’s $6,000 over-expenditure for student salaries last year.

“Where is the oversight in that?” Ahlers said.

OSLOC will now take budgets to the SFC and funding will be determined by monthly budget analyses by the oversight committee.

Further, the SA believes there should be more unity and collaboration for printing and copying between the OSL units to save students money.

The SFC approved about $470,000 for BOSS; however, OSLOC knocked that number down $20,000 after a recommendation from BOSS Director Courtney Gotz. With its currently approved funding, BOSS will be able to pay off the approximate $155,000 debt it currently has while expanding its services. At its current funding, $72,000 will be put toward its debt —roughly half of its over-expenditure.
The CVSL had $5,500 taken from its operational budget and placed into a general OSL operational fund. An additional $11,000 was taken from its programming budget that was then placed in a general OSL programming fund. Laurie Marks, the center’s director, did not receive the $2,500 salary increase she requested.
The LGBT Resource Center suffered a $19,000 cut per its request for funding for the 2006-07 school year. Of which, $9,000 was removed by the SFC and OSLOC took $5,000 from programming and another $5,000 from office supplies and printing—both of which were placed into a common OSL fund to be used by all six units.
LINKS had $7,000 taken from its operational funding per OSLOC. OSLOC also placed a $19,000 cap its assistant director position and encouraged a student or AmeriCorps employee take on the role to further save money.
SAO requested roughly $50,000 for a second assistant director from SFC, but the committee did not honor that request. OSLOC cut $5,800 from operational costs from SAO and eliminated all $15,000 from the SAO Organization Resource Center – a training facility for new student organizations on the Union ground floor that opened in March, effectively closing it. The assistant director for SAO will take a $10,000 salary cut.
The WRC requested about $260,000 for the upcoming school year. SFC recommended $240,000 be allocated in segregated fees. OSLOC knocked that number down to about $238,000 with the stipulation that one of two assistant director positions be eliminated. The $1,700 cut was for office supplies and operational costs.

This spring, membership of OSLOC was comprised of the six student chairs of OSL,the SA president, the OSL unit directors, Jim Hill, of the Division of Student Affairs, and Tom McGinnity, Dean of Students. The SA president and six OSL student chairs were the only ones with voting rights.

This coming school year, however, the directors of the OSLs will no longer serve on OSLOC. The student chairs will be six students appointed by the SA.

WRC appeals, suffers additional cut

The WRC appealed the committee’s decision to cut funds. At the appeal, four of the seven voting students were present. At the end of the appeal, now Senate Speaker Rueden and Prahl voted to keep the cuts and additionally eliminate one of two assistant director positions in the WRC.

“Personally I feel a director and assistant director should be able to fulfill the mission of the unit,” Prahl said.

Prahl said despite the 2-0-2 vote, she was comfortable with it.

“With everything, state and national government, if every citizen could vote, things would be better,” Prahl said. “We need to be responsible with what we have. We need to keep that in mind and be fiscally responsible.”

OSLOC’s committee decision is final and does not go before the Senate.

Of the seven voting OSLOC committee members, Anna Kasper called in ill, Jonathan Tingley was unable to attend because of a two hour distance separating him from UWM and Antwan Jones had other plans, committee members said.

The four present members constituted a quorum, but Joe Ahlers and Neal Michals abstained from voting on whether or not to completely eliminate the WRC assistant director position or use the position as originally recommended by OSLOC.

“When we looked at this whole process it was very difficult,” Ahlers said. “Some of the directors were not honest with us, Cathy (Seasholes, director of the WRC) was. But when she explained what that position did, I was not convinced that that position was needed. We decided it wasn’t fiscally responsible.”