“IF IT AIN’T broke, don’t fix it.” This piece of folksy wisdom is too often employed by proponents of the status quo. Perhaps the only benefit of the current economic crisis is that it has shown us certain things that were broken, from the subprime mortgage system to finance regulation. It’s not just Wall Street that has experienced this, though, as even our own Student Council is now experiencing tough times. As we deal with the unfortunate realities of a tighter budget, student leaders should press for permanent reforms so that Student Council never returns to its previous bloated state.
On January 20, as Barack Obama was giving his inaugural address, members of Student Council’s Environmental Sustainability Committee received some worrying news. “We have just received word from StudCo Exec that there is a significant shortage of funding for the Spring semester,” the e-mail read. “Any budget item that involves non-SAF funding (which includes, most notably, food) must find funding from outside Council, or be cut. We are simply out of non-SAF funds for the year.” These funds are used for all expenses not allowed under the Board of Visitors’ rules for the use of the Student Activity Fund (SAF), such as food and awards.
According to Student Council President Matt Schrimper, the “primary source” of these non-SAF funds is the University Bookstore. Over the summer, the Executive Director of the Bookstore Jon Kates indicated that the Bookstore intended to make $30,000 in gifts to the Student Council, which is in accordance with recent practice and tradition, according to Schrimper. The gift was to come in installments, but in November, Student Council received word that the February installment would be $5,000, instead of the $10,000 on which they had planned.
In January, the news went from bad to worse. “We got word this January that all $10,000 that we have remaining in non-SAF funds will not be forthcoming from the Bookstore,” Schrimper said. While Student Council currently has $10,000 in non-SAF funds in its account, it has already approved more than that amount in projects. Schrimper stresses that Student Council is not yet “cutting any programs” but the message to committees like Environmental Sustainability has been to find alternative funding, since the Student Council money will no longer be available.
What will be the end result of this shortfall? According to Schrimper, the two biggest areas of impact will be student-initiated courses, which face a 50 percent deficit that would have been put towards professor stipends, and Unity grants, which give “unrestricted grants” to CIOs who work towards strengthening ties with the surrounding community. In both cases, Student Council is searching for alternative funding sources. While those are the largest projects that are currently endangered, there are others as well. Safety and Wellness Committee Vice Chair Colin Hood said his group had been planning a “nutritional breakfast” that they are now “postponing, maybe permanently.” Still, he says the impact of the non-SAF drought is not dire because “most of our funds we could get from SAF.” This is true for all of Council, but the one-third cut in non-SAF funds should be seen as a warning, especially given how out-of-control spending has been in Student Council’s history.
Perhaps the most egregious example of Council’s past extravagance was the lavish committee chair dinners, including one at downtown hot-spot Bang!, which cost the previous Council $600. This expenditure, funded entirely from non-SAF sources, was rightly eliminated this year, along with the practice of providing food at committee meetings, according to Schrimper. The decision to eliminate these unnecessary and unethical perks looks even better in retrospect, given the current shortfall. Still, there are other steps that must be taken now that Student Council is staring at a $10,000 deficit.
One common sense step that some on Council are already advocating is for committees themselves to conduct fundraising to help offset some of the costs of their projects. A version of this has already been successful, as some events this year have benefited from donated food, which offsets a large, non-SAF expense. In general, Student Council should never endeavor to ply small groups of students with free food, using money intended to benefit the student body at large. Seeking donations of food is a vastly preferable system.
Still, more could be done, and Hood says, “My advice would be for committees to plan on ways to fund their projects without relying on Student Council.” Schrimper echoed that sentiment, saying, “long-term [fundraising] could be a healthy aspect of what committees do.” As Hood points out, if committees find sources of funding other than student fees and uncertain Bookstore gifts, it “won’t only benefit them it will benefit the entire student body.”
In the end, the budgetary struggles should be seen not just as a hardship, which they no doubt are, but also as an opportunity. Maybe Student Council should suggest a new saying. “If you’re broke, fix it.”
Isaac Wood’s column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at i.wood@cavalierdaily.com.
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