Eighteen A.S. budget items, including campus programs that benefit students’ safety, awareness and tutoring, may lose funding they receive from the A.S. government for the 2008-09 academic year.
Adam Haverstock, the former student president, vetoed?a total of?$177,572 of funding from three sections of the newly proposed $6.7 million budget: clubs and organizations, university programs, and A.S. programs and services.?The budget has yet to be approved.
David Crandall, the A.S. general manager, said the funding was placed into an unallocated reserves account.
“A.S. priorities are skewed,” said Stephanie Haibloom, president of Blues Project, an organization that had its funding vetoed.?The Blues Project educates students about the symptoms of suicide and depression via classroom presentations and by handing out pamphlets.
“We all need an ice hockey team that none of the students know about,” Haibloom said. “But we don’t need needed services to help with anorexia, date rape, depression, suicide or escorts to walk girls to their cars at night.”
Haverstock vetoed more than $30,000 from the budgets of?The Matador Involvement Center (MIC) and the Student Development and International Programs (SDIP) Graduate Assistant Organization Advising.?
He also vetoed $25,189 from?the A.S. recycling program and they services it provides.?This funding was used to promote awareness of the campus recycling program and student compensation.
Fourteen campus programs may lose all their funding if Haverstock’s vetoes are approved. The programs include the CSUN?Aquatic Center, the Blues Project, the Center of Achievement, Discover, Inquire, Grow in LA (DIG), Project ACT, Project DATE, Public Safety Escort Service, Science and Math Retention Tutors, Science and Math Retention, SDIP Leadership Institute, SDIP Student Panels for an International Curriculum and Education (SPICE), SDPI MIC Volunteer Program, Student Health Advisory Committee and University Ambassadors.
CSUN President Jolene Koester deferred approving the newly proposed A.S. budget at the request of members of the A.S. students, said Terry Piper, vice president for student affairs.
A budget recommendation meeting with Koester is schedule for Tuesday, June 10, said Miguel Segura, the new A.S. president. The A.S.?Senate will vote on the items discussed at the budget recommendation meeting at their June 24 meeting.
?”Its up to the Senate, not us,” said Segura about his and Koester’s roles in deciding the annual A.S. budget.
?”All the work, struggle and time commitments that the senate went through just went to waste,” said Segura, who did not agree with Haverstock’s use of the veto.
Haverstock said a “veto can stop an action, but can’t take action” in regard to why he did not place the funding for the vetoed items into a specific account. He said?he would prefer that the funds go into the Student Advocacy Account and the Academically Related Reserves Account (ARRA).
“The A.S. fee should go to programs that are student-initiated and student-operated, not university programs,” Haverstock said in regard to why he vetoed funding for certain items in the newly proposed budget.
“The dollars from $3,000 tuition paid or for the $8,000 that the state gives the university, not the $74 student representative fee, should pay (for these university programs),” Haverstock said.?
The vetoes were for programs?operated by university employees and ran by administrative staff, Haverstock said.
The programs that may lose their funding will have to be funded out of another source or eliminated, Piper said.
The programs can apply for grants or look for another sponsor, which would not be guaranteed from year to year, Piper said.
