By Robert Salonga
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
rsalonga@media.ucla.edu
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An unprecedented budget shortfall and new guidelines have lessened
the funding many student groups can expect from their student
government this year, according to figures up for approval
Monday.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council is working with
roughly $30,000 less programming funds than last year, and the
Budget Review Committee is using a new category-based system of
distributing funding to student groups. USAC will vote on base
budget proposals at its meeting Monday.
Finance Committee Chair Hrug DerManuelian said groups came into
the funding application process knowing there would be less money
than in past years.
“Most groups came into the process knowing what was
available,” said Community Service Commissioner Suzanne Yu,
also a BRC member.
The cuts occurred because USAC’s primary funding body, the
Associated Students of UCLA, is strapped for cash, due in part to
the effort to unionize about 100 non-student workers ““ which
could cost ASUCLA anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.
This year the BRC established a new allocation method to spread
out the $98,717.47 in programming funds to the 33 qualifying
student groups on campus as well as the 13 USAC offices.
Groups were categorized according to “similar
circumstances,” including membership size and the extent of
their reach into the community, said Budget Review Director Justin
Levi.
Some groups may benefit substantially from the new system. The
Inter-Fraternity Council base budget is projected to nearly double
its 2001-2002 allocation from $1,303 to $2,460, and the Jewish
Student Union would go from $1,243 last year to $2,710 in
2002-2003.
The four groups who received the most funding in recent years
““ African Student Union, Asian Pacific Coalition, MEChA and
Samahang Pilipino ““ will likely hold that distinction this
year, though at far lesser amounts. APC, for example, is slated to
receive $3,960 for 2002-2003, less than half of the $8,028 it got
last year.
But the USAC financial forecast could perk up if a referendum to
increase student government fees meets voter approval in the fall.
A similar referendum failed to meet the minimum 10 percent voter
turnout last spring.
While the first referendum proposed to increase by $8.50 the
quarterly $24.09 students currently pay to USAC, council members
hope to slightly increase the amount to accommodate increased costs
for the commissions.
According to current projections, the referendum could raise an
additional $210,000 to be spent on student groups. There are no
definite plans on how the money would be distributed if it
passes.
For the sake of future councils, Levi said he wanted to make the
funding system “less arbitrary” than it has been in
past years. BRC members agreed on a $4,000 maximum cap and $500
minimum cap for qualifying groups seeking base budget funding.
But to determine what groups would get how much money, they
implemented a point system scoring groups based on how they
answered certain questions during their budget proposals.
The points given were based on the discretion of individual BRC
members ““ Levi, DerManuelian, Yu, Cultural Affairs
Commissioner Robbie Clark and Financial Supports Commissioner
Andrew LaFlamme.
“It’s a judgment call,” Levi said. “Some
are tougher (scorers) than others, but as long as each person was
consistent, it was fine.”