Joint resolution committee announces budget

Student fees will increase by $5 per term for 2009-2010 academic year

By: Erin Huggins

Posted: 4/1/09

The six-member joint resolution committee (JRC) released a final budget passed 5-1 and approved by President Minahan to raise student fees $5 per term during the 2009-2010 school year, ending the 3-month budget-making process begun by IFC (Incidental Fee Committee).
Senate budget chair Joel Everett said he and other JRC members (Adam Swick-IFC, Tyler Laughlin-Senate, Kristina Babbit-Senate, Nicole Williams-IFC and Stephen Caulkin-IFC) went through the budgets line-by-line to find inflation and other areas deemed unnecessary.
"It's the IFC's job to thoroughly go through each and every department's budget and ask as many questions as possible, get as much information as possible from last year's and prior years' discussions and areas and come up with a decision," said Everett.
He said Senate's job is to act as accountability for IFC. JRC then meets to hash out the differences between the two budgets.
JRC budget numbers for 2009-2010 contain discrepancies based on that description, though.
IFC's final budget decision projected a $10 increase per term in student fees; Senate proposed a $9 increase; JRC raised student fees by $5.
Everett said JRC changed all of the budgets this year from those submitted by Senate and IFC, rather than only the areas in controversy because members of the JRC did not feel that either IFC or Senate had done their jobs properly in researching the budgets and cutting excess funds.
Except for ASWOU and Student Media, all departments received increased funding for 2009-2010, ranging from 5.7 percent to 1227.8 percent.
ASWOU, which received a 5.6 percent decrease in funding, requested less student dollars, and Everett said the 8.8 percent cut from 2008-2009 funding for student media was due to the TV/Radio station not running next year and because the "Northwest Passage," Western's literary journal, will only put out two issues next year, as opposed to the three for which the magazine is currently being funded.
"On IFC, we heard a lot when we had the open hearings," Caulkin said. "We had a lot of support for fully-funding every division. Naturally, those are the people that have an interest and really want to see the departments fully-funded. Arguments were really good, really just. [We] have to realize that these are just a few of the students-have to keep in mind that these are just the students that care enough to show up."
Williams, however, said that anyone can easily become an involved member of their campus community.
"Honestly, the people who choose to get involved end up being the group who decides and influences many major decisions, such as how student incidental fee money is allocated," she said. "Any student has the power to voice their concerns and needs, which I don't think most students realize. I just think your voice is heard a little louder if you are actively involved and know what's happening around campus."
Everett said that the JRC looked at the most responsible way to handle the funds and to best represent students. He said department heads may have been surprised at the final decision because for some of them, their job is to work out the proposed budgets to get more money for their individual programs.
Graduate student Laughlin said, "It's a problem, too, when certain people [area heads] tell you that the budgets are larger than they need. I think it's a problem with the entire process. [The heads] are encouraged to spend everything so they can request more; they are encouraged to inflate their budgets so they can get what they need."
Williams said about the final JRC decision, "Almost every [proposed] budget was cut somehow. I feel students cannot expect to see current service levels maintained next year. Unfortunately, areas that impact academic programs and retention such as Creative Arts, the student media, and ASWOU will be negatively affected. These areas received a large amount of turn-out on their behalf during the open hearings. I feel students' wishes were not met or even considered during JRC's decision making process. They have not represented the students impartially."
Caulkin, the only JRC member to vote against the budget, said IFC's original decision was a good balance that funded the departments with what they needed. "When [the decision] moved to JRC, my feeling was that those levels that they were moved to were not acceptable for maintaining the service level."
Several department heads, including Jon Tucker of WUC, Shelby Case of Student Media, Jon Carey of Athletics, Malissa Larson of Access, Keller Coker of Creative Arts and Max Beach of ASWOU, signed a petition to President Minahan, urging him to reject the JRC budget, claiming it overstepped boundaries of Joint Resolution and developed a new budget outside of Senate and IFC.
In response, President Minahan sent a letter to Beach, requesting him to "convene the IFC Steering Committee to develop rules governing the JRC deliberation so that students will be confident that the JRC deliberations are repeatable and regular from year to year."
Looking back provides 20-20 vision, Caulkin said. "At the time, people were doing what they thought was best to service their constituency, which is the student body. There was confusion and misconception of what JRC was supposed to do."
"In these difficult times, it is essential that this process work openly and predictably according to rules which are consistent from year to year," Minahan said.