By Melody Wang
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Undergraduate Students Association uses mandatory student
fees of $23 per quarter from each student to allocate funds to
various on-campus programs and groups.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council voted at its Aug.
8 meeting to reconsider the amount allocated to the Jewish Student
Union and the Interfraternity Council separately, but unanimously
approved the rest of its base budget.
Budget Review Director Marykay Tsuji said her committee tried
its best to be fair, but she understands USAC’s need for
clarification.
“I kind of felt like USAC did give us the responsibility
to allocate money and I felt like they should have trusted us, but
at the same time I am not offended at all. They’ve got to do
what they to have to do,” Tsuji said.
The Budget Review Committee considered factors such as programs,
budget proposals and presentations of each student advocacy group
when allocating funds.
Money for the groups’ base budgets, which covers expenses
such as telephone bills, photocopying and postage fees, comes from
mandatory USA membership fees. This year, the BRC had about
$146,000 to work with.
“Because it is a base budget, we tried the best we could
to allocate money for their priorities and office functions,”
Tsuji said.
She added that groups obtain money through other sources such as
the Community Activities Committee, which funds various community
service programs.
Contingency requests can also be granted by the Finance
Committee throughout the year if groups need additional money for
events.
Though council members thought most of the budget to be fair,
they unanimously voted to reconsider funding for JSU, which was
granted $800, the lowest amount among all the groups. The BRC
granted the group $800 because JSU President Al Tsarovsky, who had
a family emergency, was not able to attend the budget or appeal
hearings.
“It is not fair that JSU did not receive a decent amount
of money because of me,” Tsarovsky said to council members at
the meeting. “Everything before the budget hearing was done
on time.”
He added that USAC’s decision to reconsider JSU’s
budget was fair and that he would be happy no matter what the final
result is.
Tsuji said she understands Tsarovsky’s situation and
wishes she could have given him more money from the start, but
because he did not attend the hearing, she was forced to fund JSU
based on the written proposal.
“(The proposal) was handwritten, messy, very hard to read
and had no breakdown of the items money was needed for,”
Tsuji said.
At the council meeting there was also confusion about where the
extra money would come from if USAC decides to give JSU more
money.
USAC members questioned whether they could take money from the
overhead budget ““ which funds non-student advocacy groups and
non-commission offices ““ since it was already approved in
June.
According to Student Union Director Jerry Mann, who later
clarified the issue, the council can modify the budget at any
time.
USAC will make a final decision about JSU’s budget at the
Aug. 15 meeting.
While most council members said JSU deserved more money, some
said IFC, which was allocated $1,840, received too much money this
year. Last year, IFC got $680. USAC voted 6-3 to reconsider
IFC’s budget.
Some members questioned why a group should receive three times
the amount it did the previous year when IFC did not spend any of
that money last year.
“I just want an explanation as to why they get so much of
an increase,” said General Representative Elisa Sequeira.
“It may seem to people that we are attacking IFC, but that is
not my intention.”
But according to the budget IFC submitted to USAC, IFC spent all
the money it received the last fiscal year on office supplies,
phone bills and programs. Mike Vines, president of IFC, said his
organization did not spend the money until after its court hearing
in June.
Last year, IFC appealed USAC’s budget because its members
felt the $680 it received was not enough. Because it could not meet
quorum, however, the Judicial Board did not review the case until
late spring,when it ruled in favor of USAC.
“We felt that money was an insult to us because of the
amount of money and the scope of our programs,” Vines said.
“We were going to wait for our total fund. When (the J-Board)
denied our appeal, we then spent our money.”
Tsuji said IFC did not receive a lot of money compared to other
groups and that IFC would need more money this year since members
are moving into new offices.
“Personally I don’t think they were given a good
amount last year,” Tsuji said. “I thought this was a
fair amount. If we had done it any other way, it wouldn’t
have been justifiable.”
Vines said though the $1,840 BRC recommended to USAC this year
is still low, he was happy that it was higher than last
year’s budget. He said he had no intentions to appeal the
budget until USAC decided to question why IFC was allocated three
times what it received last year.
“IFC feels the second inquiry is both unjustified and
uncalled for,” Vines said.
According to Tsuji, a group unhappy with the amount allocated to
it can appeal if it feels that the BRC treated the group unfairly,
not because the group did not receive a certain amount of
money.
USAC ALLOCATES BUDGETS FOR STUDENT ADVOCACY
GROUPS The Budget Review Committee proposes how much each
student group receives based on the organization’s application and
interview.