Six months after its implementation, a student-initiated fee
increase passed last spring seems to have delivered on its promised
goals.
The PULSE referendum was approved by a majority of voting
undergraduate students in May 2005.
PULSE, which stands for Promoting Understanding and Learning
through Service and Education, raised student fees by $6.50 a
quarter, to be adjusted every three years for inflation, in an
attempt to allow campus-based community-service organizations to
maintain their levels of operation amid looming budget cuts.
The fee, which is divided up between four campus service groups,
has eased financial pressures, helped with transportation costs and
given projects enough breathing room to plan for the future, said
Lucero Chavez, chairwoman of the Student Initiated Access
Committee.
“It really gave us time to strategize,” said Chavez,
whose group received the majority of the PULSE funds and oversees
seven community service projects and one financial-aid project.
The funds from PULSE are split between the Community Service
Commission, the Campus Retention Center, SIAC ““ formerly
known as the Student Initiated Outreach Committee ““ and the
Community Activities Commission. The four groups together sponsor
over 100 community service projects.
The first quarter of PULSE implementation in fall 2005 saw a
gain of funds amounting to $161,272, and the referendum is
estimated to bring in approximately $156,019 for the winter 2006
quarter, said Lauren Bartlett, spokeswoman for Jerry Mann, director
of Student Union and Student Support Services.
The fee referendum came at a time when funding cuts foretold a
grim future for the community-service groups in question.
Jorge Rios, the vice-chairman of CAC, said funding cuts would
have reduced transportation budget allocations for its projects.
Both CAC and CSC can use the money only for transportation
expenses.
CAC only funds off-campus projects and cuts to transportation
budget allocations would have severely hit the projects by limiting
their ability to hold community-service projects, Rios said.
Because of PULSE, “we have been able … to keep funding
at the same level as years past for transportation, even though
there have been cuts,” Rios said.
Transportation was just one of many concerns for SIAC, the only
group of the four currently receiving federal funding.
Last spring, SIAC faced budget cuts of up to 75 percent, though
it is now receiving the majority of PULSE funds.
Had PULSE not come into play, SIAC would have had problems
maintaining its current level of staffing, number of site visits
and “the number of students we would have been able to
service would have been cut drastically,” Chavez said.
Instead, PULSE “increased the amount we were able to
allocate tremendously,” Chavez said, adding that PULSE funds
allowed some projects to expand.
Xinachtli, a peer-advising and student-development group under
SIAC, has expanded its previous three high-school and
community-center sites to five and increased the number of times
its members visits those sites from two to four times per week.
Xinachtli was also able to hire an assistant director and
additional coordinators, without which it probably would not have
been able to take on those extra projects, Chavez said.
Transportation expenses, including leasing fees, maintenance and
gas costs, are where PULSE funds have been used by CSC, said
Farheen Malik, CSC commissioner.
“What we decided to do was absorb some of those costs to
lessen the daily vehicle costs to $30 (per day) for each of our
projects,” Malik said.
This is a reduction in the cost of a van for a day, from $60 to
$80, Malik said.
PULSE came through on its goals, and no additional fee
referendum for community service groups will be necessary, Malik
said.
“I don’t think there’s anything we need to ask
the students for again, not in the near future,” she
said.