Student Senate representative to the Budget Committee Bonny Eyer attended Blackburn College’s Budget Committee meeting earlier this month to discuss a new budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year. The proposal would see an increase in the total budget from $13.4 million to $14.2 million by making some significant changes to how money is currently spent.
Several departments would receive budgetary cuts according to this proposal, which would decrease the operating deficit from $474,000 to $252,000.
“There are some increases in expenditures that are either beyond our control or a huge priority to us,” said President John Comerford. “For example, rising costs of health insurance, making sure our faculty and staff compensation keeps pace with inflation or increasing the value of the Work Program tuition credit.”
Proposed cuts could impact the Campus Activities Board (CAB), Residence Life (Res. Life), Student Senate and Arts and Issues.
“This recommendation that I made is not solely based on our need for budget cuts,” said Budget Committee Chair and Vice President for Administration and Finance Steve Morris. “I would base this recommendation regardless of what our budget status is.”
Some students have voiced their objections to these cuts.“I think it’s completely asinine to cut those areas,” said Eyer. “I think it’ll drive [students] away to where they have stuff to do in their hometowns.”
The total budget for student activities would be decreased from approximately $159,000 to $102,000 next year. Students are charged $350 annually for a student activities fee. Through this proposed budget the portion of this fee that is allocated for student activities would be reduced by roughly 46 percent.
Retention rates are one of the major areas of concern for Student Senate in regards to the proposed department cuts. According to Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Heidi Heinz, only 65 percent of freshmen were retained this year (the same percentage as last year, but up from 62 percent the previous year).
“We talk about retention rates quite often and how we can keep students here,” said Eyer. “The activities we do are one of them. I mean Platinum Bingo and Casino Night were big hits.We show movies all the time. The movie on the quad last semester was a huge hit.” These activities will likely be impacted by the proposed budget cuts.
Student Senate generated a petition in response to these cuts with hopes that Budget Committee will reconsider their proposal.
“We wanted to be more proactive,” said Eyer. “So when I brought back this information and presented it all to Senate last Sunday, they did not like what they saw. And neither do Dr. Armstrong or Heidi Heinz who sponsor us or supervise us I guess.”
The petition garnered 297 signatures before it was presented at Monday’s cabinet meeting. Signatures came from both students and faculty.
“It’s important to note that there is nothing that is being cut yet,” said Morris. “We are talking about this. We are having an open discussion.”
Though the Budget Committee hopes to finalize the budget by the end of the month, it cannot be approved officially until the June 3 board meeting.
[Editor’s Note: The above was written after the initial announcement of the proposal cut. Below is an update following the students’ petition.]
Budget Committee Chair Steve Morris has withdrawn his proposal to allocate funds from the Student Activities budget.
“Based on the work of Student Senate and the Budget Committee’s discussion on Tuesday April 11, I am withdrawing my recommendation to apply the discount rate to student funding as a flawed approach for Blackburn,” said Morris in a letter to cabinet members last week.
This announcement came just day just days after Student Senate’s petition garnering 297 signatures was submitted to the cabinet.
“We could couldn’t have done this without the student body support,” said Student Senate Chair Ajay Minton. “A big factor was the [nearly] 300 signatures we had on the petition. It showed that student body was with Student Senate. They made a difference.”
Though this represents a significant victory for Student Senate, the Budget Committee has yet to determine the Student Activities budget for the next fiscal year.
“I’m still not sure what an adequate budget for Student Activities would be, whether it should be treated as an operational or restricted account, whether the discount rate should be applied to the fee revenue, or how appropriate it is that we spend more on student activities than on academic department budgets,” said Blackburn President John Comerford. “All these things are worth discussing and I’m glad the Budget Committee is taking a look.”
Student Senate will remain involved in this discussion and plan to meet with the Budget Committee in meetings going forward.
“I’m really impressed with the administration on how caring they are about student input and how these things are going to affect students,” said Minton. “It’s kind of nice to know that here at Blackburn students can make a difference and have an impact on school policy.”