E-center gets increase, DSB gets rejected
The UCSU budgets will be heading to Legislative Council next Thursday.
There were smiles on some faces and frowns on others as the UCSU Finance Board went through the second readings of non-“Big 3” cost center budgets during a grueling four and a half hour meeting Tuesday night.
The cost centers that generated the most discussion were the Environmental Center and the Distinguished Speakers Board. The Environmental Center asked for an additional $26,000 to hire a communications, events and outreach director. They also made some cuts in order to raise wages for CU recycling staff and better fund the Environmental Justice program.
Dave Newport, the director of the Environmental Center, said that it received what it needed and did it without heavily increasing student fees.
“The way we’re (funding the new position), there’s minimal pressure on student fees.” Newport said.
Half of the money for the $26,000 increase came from student fees, and the other half came from the Board’s Supplemental Operational Reserve. SOR is where any over-collections from cost centers go, along with 30 percent of any unspent funds the cost centers may have.
Rodrigo Gonzalez, a junior engineering and economics major who sits on the Finance Board, said he voted in favor of the increase because it was necessary to help the Environmental Center better carry out their work.
“The E-Center does an enormous amount of programming and outreach,” Gonzalez said. “What the student union is expecting them to do.is a lot given what resources they have.”
Allison Schauwecker, a senior international affairs major and chair of the Distinguished Speakers Board, said she was not as happy about the outcome of the meeting.
Schauwecker and other representatives from the DSB asked for an additional $10,000 in order to procure better speakers. While they had already received a $7,000 increase from last year, Schauwecker said she believes that the additional $10,000 was necessary in order to bring in more and better speakers.
However, the Finance Board voted against the increase. Schauwecker said that the board didn’t really understand the realities of trying to bring in quality speakers to CU.
“I don’t think they understand the grand scale of the industry we’re involved in,” Schauwecker said. She added that the DSB would not be able to function as efficiently without the increase.
Gonzalez and other members of the Board who voted against the increase said they felt that $120,000 was enough for the DSB to do what it needed to do. They also said the DSB could partner with other groups like the Cultural Events Board if needed.
“$120,000 is a reasonable number to bring in high caliber speakers,” Gonzalez said, adding that CEB also funds speakers. He said the additional $10,000 was an increase more than inflation would account for.
Finance Board Chair Cate Greguras, a senior accounting major, said that the decisions the board made were based on the different functions of the two centers and that they couldn’t be compared. As chair of the Finance Board, Greguras can’t vote on budget decisions unless there is a tie, but she said that she had full confidence in the decisions the other board members made.
“I really feel they (the cost centers) got fair decisions,” Greguras said. “I fully support my board members.”
Having passed their second readings, the cost center budgets will now be presented to the UCSU Legislative Council for final review, pending a final revision of the budget for the UMC. If the current projected budgets are passed, students can expect to see an increase of $17.58, or 5.59 percent, from last year’s student fees.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Rob Ryan at rryan@colorado.edu.
