Cuts to other community health efforts could undermine its efforts
Many believe it doesn’t matter which community health program at CU is cut because all the programs are intertwined.
If one is harmed by a lack of funding, all of them will, Wardenburg supporters say.
An amount that was supposed to be allocated for the CU Rape and Gender Education Program was not included in the budget two weeks ago. However, according to Matt Leroue, a senior biological sciences major and junior co-chairman of the Wardenburg Student Health Board, last Thursday there was an amendment to the budget that said the Legislative Council was going to give cost centers a certain amount, rather than allocate money to certain programs. This means COURAGE would still get funding.
The Finance Board allocated a $3.75 million budget to Wardenburg Health Center. This is a $288,000 increase from last year.
“We have the money for community health,” Leroue said. “However, just because we have it doesn’t mean it is all going to community health.”
Leroue said the student health board is going to examine Wardenburg’s program and decide where the money should go.
Robin Kolble, manager of the Community Health Education Department, is confident, the Community Health Education Department will get about 80 percent of its current budget back.
Even if COURAGE is safe from the cuts, Kolble said COURAGE would not benefit if other community health programs were cut instead.
“To have any of our programs stand alone doesn’t work,” Kolble said. “We all have to work together.”
Kolble also said COURAGE deals with a tough issue that is hard to address as a stand-alone topic.
“On Feb. 14, we did an event called Share The Love,” Kolble said. “All the programs (Sexual Health Peer Education, Student Wellness Program, etc.) worked together as partners, so it was not just about sex assault, but rather open to all students. Students won’t take a consent kit if the focus is just on sexual assault.”
Leroue said COURAGE serves a unique function.
“It is the only peer-to-peer action to prevent rape and sexual assault, and it also advocates for victims as well,” Leroue said.
Teresa Wroe, the professional coordinator for COURAGE, agreed COURAGE needs the support of other community health programs.
“It would be a lot harder to get our information out there if it was just us,” Wroe said. “People are still very scared of our issue, and it’s difficult to get the outreach directly. It is a huge benefit to have other programs to piggyback on.”
COURAGE’s money is used for staff, resource training each semester and outreach such as consent kits, calling cards and brochures.
Wroe said a cut in the budget would hurt COURAGE.
“We would be able to do a lot less of the general outreach,” Wroe said. “Programs like ours have to market, (and) we try to combine how we do outreach material.”
While Wroe agreed that a certain amount of money should be designated for the community health program, she believes it would make it more difficult for the programs within community health if each particular program was designated a certain amount of money.
Contact Campus Press staff writer Molly Gasiewicz at molly.gasiewicz@thecampuspress.com.
