COURTNEY GFROERER
Managing Editor
Seven and a half grueling hours later, the General Assembly was able to pass an initial version of the Student Association budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year. The budget still has to go through a series of individuals and GA before it is final.
After reviewing their budgets the past few weeks, nine constituted groups came to GA Day this past Saturday and marked “unsatisfied” with their budget. Groups came with the mission to pitch to GA and the Budget and Appropriations committee why they needed the money that was proposed to be taken out of their budget and exactly what they planned to do with it.
Attempting to solve the budget deficit, GA ultimately voted on increasing the student activity fee to $97.75.
Much of the controversy revolved around Black Student Union’s budget of their concert line. Initially requesting $16,960, BSU received $9,750 at the end of the day. This money is to be used for not only a concert, but their annual fashion show. BSU E-board told GA how this money was necessary to properly put on the events which, they explained, brought prospective students to campus.
“A lot of the groups had different things that they wanted — buses, computers — that was okay. We were told some of the things we do are unnecessary,” said Jillian Hanesworth, president of BSU. “Is any of this necessary, to be honest? Some of the biggest events here [on campus] are not necessary. We don’t need to have them. We want them; they’re successful — they’re fun. But are they necessary?”
Many groups spoke up in support of BSU noting how successful their events have been in the past, and just how vital they were to a number of students on campus.
“It’s about more than just the money. BSU constantly feels like they are under attack when it comes to the Student Association. The way Saturday went reflects that,” said Hanesworth. “Every group that was dissatisfied, they went up and they were questioned 20-30 minutes. We were questioned for an hour and a half.”
BSU is still unsure as to why so much of their own budget was cut as opposed to other groups. “We’re not satisfied. We’re working on what we’re going to do next,” said Hanesworth.
WNYF-TV, another group that marked “dissatisfied,” felt that — being new to the meeting process — they were not fully informed of the rules, rundown or format of GA Day, resulting in the group not getting all of the funds they wanted.
“Out of respect for the groups … it’s like I said in the meeting. We think of all the groups as kind of a cohesive whole that has to work together to make every club work,” said WNYF-TV general manager Casandra DeLuise. “But I didn’t feel like that was the general tone of the room. Towards the end of the meeting we kind of realized that, and we felt played a little bit.”
Though they changed their response to “satisfied” after the first executive session, they expressed that, had they known they could have, they would have remained “dissatisfied,” as BSU and Spectrum did. This then forced the B&A board back into executive session.
“After the first executive meeting they had a new chart for us to look at. We were on the fence about the amount they gave us back,” explained WNYF-TV assistant chief engineer Jefferson Piasek. “So we actually didn’t know how we felt immediately, but they asked us and we felt forced to give an answer. So we equivocated, but we did say ‘satisfied.’ We did not know that we had the option to wait and talk about it longer.”
DeLuise also expressed how they were unaware there was a chance to change the student activity fee, thinking that the amount was final coming into GA Day.
“We were unknowingly forced into a ‘satisfied’ answer,” Piasek said, “[even though] we were actually slightly dissatisfied, enough to have marked ‘dissatisfied’ if we had known.”
After changing their plea to “satisfied” once they saw the new, suggested budget following the first executive B&A board session, WNYF-TV was no longer eligible to modify their portion of the budget.
SA president Antonio Regulier said that while all groups left the meeting marked “satisfied,” he felt that there are still some concerns that need to be addressed.
“It’s never an easy situation when discussing finances, and, in GA Day, that’s what we do. I think GA Day went as well as it could have,” Regulier said. “Of course there was some dissatisfaction within the groups for the accounts that were stripped, and some groups still ruled dissatisfactory. However, we’re doing our best to make sure that every group gets a fair chance to speak up and we did — the B&A committee — their best to accommodate each group according to however much funds were available.”
Blackhorse Rugby, Latinos Unidos, Jazz Workshop and ETHOS were among other groups to present on their budgets. While everyone presented logical rationale behind why they needed the money back, it was difficult for B&A to find money from other places in the budget to give them.
“We have one of the lowest student activity fees in comparison to other SUNY campuses. We pride ourselves on that, and we want to keep it that way,” Regulier said. “However, when groups are dissatisfied, it is our priority to make sure these groups get what they want, because at the end of the day, they represent who we are, and we represent them as well.”
One of the areas GA and the B&A committee decided could bring money was the student activity fee. A fee every SUNY Fredonia student currently pays annually, it currently stands at $95. After the first executive session of the B&A committee, it was proposed to raise the fee to $97.50. The current version of the budget proposes a $97.75 student activity fee for the 2014-15 school year, a $2.50 increase from the 2013-14 school year.
Nearing the seven hour mark, several groups offered up a donation of sorts from their own budgets to try and solve the budget crisis. Pride Alliance and Womens Student Union offered a combined total of $1,500 of their own money. While the money was never taken from the groups and utilized by the B&A committee, each group received a roaring applause for their gracious actions from the entire GA body.
The final budget could take up until the end of the semester to be approved. In addition to being approved by GA, SA president Regulier and Fredonia president Virginia Horvath both have to approve the final budget as well