ASG votes for huge funding cuts

Associated Student Government voted to cut funding to a majority of the line items that were facing proposed cuts during the senate meeting last Thursday. The Performing Arts Board and student publications received the largest cuts.

According to Megan McReynolds, ASG president and junior sociology major, the purpose of the budget cuts is to help lower the cost of attending ESU.

If the tuition and fees committee recommends an increase that will equal the total amount saved from the line item decreases, she will not sign the bills, McReynolds said.

“As president I have the authority to sign and approve or not to sign and thus veto these bills tonight,” McReynolds said. “This would effectively make it so we have no decreases in the line items over which ASG controls.”

The final decision on the status of the bills will be made after the proposed percentage of the tuition increase is determined, according to McReynolds.

The senate voted to amend the proposed cuts to the Performing Arts Board, changing their cut to $15.85 for full-time students, rather than the originally proposed cut of $14.40. According to The Bulletin’s calculations, this means a cut of 33.5 percent for the Performing Arts Board. The final vote for the proposed line item cut was 16 in favor and three against.

Cassidy Tilden, who served as the representative for the PAB and senior English and theater major, cited the ASG line item policy, which states that line items provide “an academic, social, and cultural environment in which every student may attain the highest possible level of growth and development.”

“In addition to this, the high impact learning initiative created by ESU serves to create a sense of social responsibility and community, which PAB is vital to,” Tilden said. “This directly relates to the fact that those under the PAB umbrella are constantly utilized for donor events, to entertain potential supporters, a large responsibility not all students have.”

Gage Simpson, freshman political science major, proposed amending the bill to a cut that would be sustainable for the PAB.

“The sustainable number, in terms of inflation, is $22.20, as released by the Performing Arts Board,” Simpson said. “They hadn’t gotten an increase since 2001, and to answer Senator Marten’s concern, of how they were sustainable before the increase, the answer is that they weren’t.”

Senators expressed concerns that the PAB did not serve the entire student body and the usage of student fees to pay for theater students to attend the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and for other professional development opportunities.

Approximately 400 students attended theater productions during 2016-2017, according to Sawyer Barragan, chief of staff and junior spanish and psychology major, using numbers that he received from PAB.

“I’m looking at the ESU student population on the website and it currently says that we have 5,732 students,” said Ariana Williams, sophomore chemical engineering. “That is less than 10 percent. I love the performing arts and as much as I want to support them, as a senator at large, I don’t feel like it’s fair to make every single student pay this much when less than 10 percent of the students are attending the shows.”

Camille Abdel-Jawad, senior English major, proposed an amendment to decrease the full time student fee to $15.85, instead of the original $14.40. The amendment passed with 17 in favor and two against.

ASG voted to pass the cuts to The Bulletin’s budget with no amendments, 16 in favor and three against. This results in a cut of 12 percent to The Bulletin’s budget, which is approximately a $10,000 decrease.

“We would have to drop many positions if these cuts go through, and fewer students would have the opportunity to learn what they need to gain experience for their future career, which is what college was intended for,” said Rayna Karst, editor-in-chief of The Bulletin and senior English major during the meeting.

The cuts would also diminish The Bulletin’s ability to perform in depth investigations, like the paper did with “Jane’s Story,” Karst said.

Caylie Ratzlaff, sophomore social sciences and English education major, asked if The Bulletin would be able to reallocate the funds that they received, in order to ensure watchdog investigative efforts could still occur at the same level.

“With that…we need a lot of staff members,” Karst said. “With our current investigative efforts we have certain reporters who work on those and so other reporters have to carry the brunt of the other work for the paper.”

Senators also asked about using online advertisements and making up what would be lost through the decreases through more ad sales.

No one has currently expressed specific interest in online advertisement, Karst said.

“We want the chance to advertise our local business, we strive every day to earn those sales,” Karst said. “But because of the small community we live in…our potential pool of advertisers is just not there. We would not be able to make up our cuts in ad sales.”

However, the proposed resolution recommending an annual decrease of 12 percent for The Bulletin, each year for the next four years, failed with four in favor and 15 against.

“Even though it is just a resolution, and therefore, nothing of this would actually be enacted in future senates, I would just like to point out that one, we all know that resolutions do have some form of effect on the population and two, I think we’ve probably done enough damage to The Bulletin as is,” Ratzlaff said.

The senate voted to amend the proposed cuts to “The Sunflower,” ESU’s yearbook, to $12.38 per full time students, rather than the original proposal for $12 for full time students. This will mean a 4 percent decrease to “The Sunflower’s” budget for the next fiscal year.

“First and foremost, the yearbook serves as a historical archive for ESU,” said Chloe Soetart, editor-in-chief of “The Sunflower” and senior graphic design major. “‘The Sunflower’ has been published for over 120 years and utilizes a vital record for the history of the campus.”

There are 2,100 yearbooks printed a year, with approximately 100 that are not picked up, according to Soetart.

Senators suggested the possibility of digitizing the yearbook, or providing an online opt-in form for students who wanted to preorder, instead of having a set number of print copies.

Digitizing the yearbook is not a viable option because there is no way to ensure that it will be accessible in the future, Soetart said.

“The fact of the matter is that those yearbooks exist in a tangible method for people to look at, so I think we need to take that into consideration because it is one of the things that, the history of Emporia State, like if you go into the library…it’s rows of the yearbook,” Raztlaff said.

The bill was amended to a 4 percent cut, which is a fee of $12.38 for full time students, in order to absorb “The Sunflower’s” approximately $5,000 carry over fund, without cutting any more from the line item.

ASG passed the cuts to “The Sunflower’s” line item with 18 in favor and one against.

The proposed resolution recommending an annual decrease of 8 percent for “The Sunflower,” each year for the next four years, failed. ASG voted to fail the resolution with 18 against.

The cuts to “Quivira’s” line item failed, with eight in favor, five against and six abstentions. Due to the proposed cuts not passing the senate, “Quivira” will receive their original funding of 25 cents from each full time student.

“‘Quivira’ has been in publication since 1957 and has produced the best quality of student literature it could with what it had available,” said Zach Palmer, president of “Quivira” Club and junior interdisciplinary studies major. “It’s been used as a recruiting tool and also a tool of student art celebration.”

“Quivira” submitted a petition with the signature of about 140 students that opposed the cuts before the meeting.

The line item has a carry over fund of approximately $14,000, which they have been working to reduce since the fund was discovered in 2015 and could sustain them for about four years, according to Palmer.

Shelby Marten, chair of the fiscal affairs committee and senior physical and health education, supported the cuts in order to reduce the carry over.

“As of now, it would help our students out at least for the next four years and if it’s not going to hurt them in those next four years, I don’t see the problem,” Marten said.

The proposed cuts weren’t worth the amount of money that they would save students, according to Simpson.

“This cut, I don’t think is worth it.” Simpson said. “I don’t think it’s worth the 15 cents per full time student. I think that the benefit for those who are focused on literature and art is much greater than the disadvantage of a quarter, that each of you put in the parking meter.”

The proposed cuts failed, with only an amendment to correct the spelling of “Quivira” in the bill.

ASG voted to fail the proposed cuts for the Center for Early Childhood Education with nine in favor of the cuts, seven against and three abstentions.

The CECE employs approximately 35 students per semester and their funding from ASG goes partly towards paying student salaries, according to Jenny Long, interim director for the CECE and assistant professor in elementary education. The rest of the line item funding goes towards subsiding the cost of childcare for children of ESU students.

Currently, there are 27 students on campus whose children attend the CECE, according to Long. These students pay $2 less a day than parents who are faculty, staff or community members.

“They get a $2 a day deduction, because they are students, which is about $10 a week and $490 for a year,” Long said.

The proposed cuts to the Sports Club line item passed as is with 17 in favor and zero against. Sports Clubs were cut to 50 cents for full time students, which results in a cut of 17 percent to the line item. There was no representative from the line item that attended the meeting.

ASG also voted to pass the proposed cuts to their own line item funding, with 18 in favor, zero against and one abstention. This results in a 7.5 percent decrease to their budget, with the full time student fee for their line item lowering to $14.80.

According Drake Rapue, treasurer and junior accounting major, ASG will be able to easily absorb these cuts.