Editor’s note: Student Union’s proposed allocations have changed since the original press time. The article has been updated to reflect these changes and the graph has been removed to prevent confusion.
At tonight’s Treasury meeting, Student Union will formally present next year’s proposed budget. Students are welcome to attend to see the SU budget for the ’08-’09 school year and to voice any concerns. The meeting will take place in Simon 110 and starts at 9:15pm.
Some groups have already found out what their budgets will be. KWUR, in particular, is not happy with the cuts they face next year. Dylan Suher, the campus radio station’s General Manager, said that KWUR “simply cannot operate” on the proposed budget.
Next year’s proposed $20,577 allocation from Student Union is down from last year’s allocation of $30,000, which itself was much lower than the $50,000 allocation for ’06-’07. For comparison, Filmboard, also an executive committee group, has a planned allocation of $5,110.99 for ’08-’09 while their ’07-’08 allocation totaled a comparable $5,380 without appeals.
“I don’t think we ask for special treatment,” Suher said, “I think we ask for what we need.”
Student Union’s Vice President of Finance, Yewande Alimi, understands Suher’s concerns but downplayed the importance of the initial numbers.
“It’s not finalized” Alimi said. “We work as an organization that has checks and balances. The legislation has to approve.” After the Treasury meeting tonight, the budget must be passed by the Senate at their meeting on Wednesday. Alimi emphasized the preliminary aspect of these early allocation numbers, “Anything can change between now and Wednesday.”
Still, many concerned students are worried and are speaking out. 298 students had joined the Facebook group, Save KWUR, at press time. KWUR supporters and Student Union alike are encouraging students to show their support at the meeting tonight.
“The type of programming that KWUR does will continue to be marginalized if its supporters don’t voice their opinions” SU Senator and KWUR supporter Alex Rosenberg posted on the Save KWUR wall.
Vice President of Administration Jeff Nelson posted several messages on the same wall encouraging student to attend the Treasury meeting. “Perhaps there are things that have been misunderstood,” Nelson posted. “The only thing that I am certain of is that Tuesday night will be the first time that there will be a formal presentation of what the general budget is and how funding was determined.”
With additional reporting by Jill Strominger