By Emily Wunderlich
After days of confusion and wrangling, Student Government’s general assembly has finally approved a proposed $1,358,043.60 budget for 2019-2020.
Here’s some of what it contains:
$70,704 in salaries for 22 students who hold Student Government positions.
$2,000 for an SG banquet and $1,000 for an SG retreat.
$2,000 for an SG senate “discretionary fund.”
Here’s some of what was cut:
$10,000 from the Campus Movie Fest.
$14,668 for the Stampete spirit committee.
$10,750 from the fitness center.
$3,000 from homecoming.
Several campus organizations stand to take substantial budget cuts – 13.1 percent for Harborside Activities Board, 10.5 percent for Student Life and Engagement, 9.3 percent for the Office of Leadership and Student Organizations, and 6.8 percent for Campus Recreation.
But the deepest cut was reserved for The Crow’s Nest, which stands to lose $12,261, or 23.4 percent.
The newspaper will lose three salaried positions ($3,960) and its entire photography budget ($1,000). It also faces a reduction in print circulation – from 15 issues a semester at 800 copies each, to 13 issues a semester at 500 copies each (a savings of only $34.20).
Student Government leaders said SG took the biggest cut – a decrease of 27.8 percent.
But that’s not accurate.
The university administration gave SG permission to use a cash flow operating reserve – an account for leftover Activities and Service fees – to help make up the shortfall in this year’s budget.
SG leaders were initially told they couldn’t use the cash flow reserve. It is intended for emergencies or major projects and initiatives, including capital projects, large one-time programs, non-recurring funds and unexpected operating expenses.
But at an appropriations meeting March 20, Dwayne Isaacs, director of Student Life and Engagement, told SG leaders they were in a “dire” situation that he would explain to the administration.
“There’s no way I’m going to let you guys cut $190,000 from your already bleeding budget,” Isaacs told the committee.
So SG allocated $174,576 from the cash flow reserve, and almost half of it — $87,178 — went to Student Government itself. (The Crow’s Nest got $1,275 of it — to pay its adviser.)
That gives SG a total allocation of $222,205 — an 18.9 percent increase over the current year’s allocation of $186,892.
In an email to The Crow’s Nest, appropriations chair Gregory Cote said he did not “wish to comment about budget specifics any further.” But at a March 25 senate meeting, he said expenses funded by the cash flow reserve should be interpreted as cuts.
“Because next year, there might not be the cash to fund it,” he said.
How it works
Each student pays $25.63 per credit hour in Activities and Services fees every semester. Of that amount, $13.80 automatically goes to the University Student Center. The remaining $11.83 is divided among university clubs and organizations by Student Government.
Total A and S revenue this year was $3,142,238, with $1,450,358 of that given to SG to allocate.
Since student enrollment was down, the A and S revenue coming to SG budget writers was down by 1.9 percent, or $28,392.
The shortfall prompted hours of sometimes animated debate in both the SG appropriations committee and the general assembly, which met several times before approving a budget and sending it to student body president Daniel “Kaeden” Kelso.
Kelso has until April 9 to either approve or veto the budget.
If he vetoes it, it goes back to the SG senate for revisions. If he approves it, it goes to the university administration, which last year rejected the budget and forced SG leaders to make changes.
On March 28, The Crow’s Nest sent the numbers and chart that accompany this story to Kelso, Cote, Ysatis Jordan, student body vice president, and Alex Williams, director of SG relations. The newspaper asked them if they saw any errors and sought their comment on the proposed budget.
Kelso, Jordan and Williams did not respond to that email, but on March 29, Kelso sent an email to the paper threatening to cut off its funding altogether if editors did not complete requirements to re-register as “a student organization” by 5 p.m. on April 2.
Cote did not directly address the newspaper’s numbers, but he praised senators for their work on the budget.
“Everyone in the Senate has done their best job to represent the student body through this appropriations period,” Cote said. “While writing your article, please keep in mind the countless unpaid hours the Senate has worked, debated during, and lost sleep over, as we have tried to find solutions for the drop in enrollment and its impact on the A&S fee budget.”
Criticism of the process
During the hours of debate over several meetings that preceded final approval of the budget, however, Student Government came under fire for what critics called a haphazard budget process marked by secrecy and confusion.
Shayla Fajardo, vice president of Harborside Activities Board, said the organization worked to meet the initial deadline for its budget presentation, which was mid-February.
“But after that, we did not receive clear and time-efficient information,” she said.
On March 20, SG leaders pulled Daniel Ciccia, HAB’s director of special events, into the conference room at 8 p.m. to discuss possible cuts to the organization. He was just passing by at the time.
“We feel as though this wasn’t the best way to approach this situation, seeing as how it put Daniel on the spot where he had to think on his feet,” Fajardo said.
“We believe that this whole process needs to be made more open to the students in order for things to happen,” Fajardo said. “There are no documents or general guidelines … which leads to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.”
As the senate deliberated March 25 on how much to allocate its “discretionary fund” (for expenses excluding office supplies and the committee that oversees special funding for clubs), the appropriations committee even drew criticism from its own chair.
“I think it is absurd for senate to be — I’ll say it — greedily using money to fund our own dinners when we could be working on our transparency, because we owe that to the student body,” Cote said.
The senate’s discretionary fund was cut by $500 to $2,000.
Whitney Elfstrom, Editor-in-Chief of The Crow’s Nest, said editors were never advised that there was a budget shortfall this year and then were not consulted before SG started making cuts.
She also called out the budget writers for protecting Student Government while slashing other organizations’ budgets.
Particularly galling, she said, was SG’s decision to cut two assistant editor positions (saving $2,640) and trimming the paper’s top two salaries (saving $776), while leaving the top SG salaries untouched.
(The editor-in-chief was cut from $5,808 to $5,440 and the managing editor from $4,488 to $4,080. The SG president makes $10,968.75 and the vice president makes $8,325, with four other SG positions paying more than $5,000.)
The deep cuts proposed in The Crow’s Nest budget prompted an expression of dismay from the faculty of the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication.
In an April 1 letter to Jacob Diaz, the assistant vice chancellor of student affairs and student success and dean of students, the faculty urged him to “consider intervening” and address what it called “unfairly distributed cuts (which) are unacceptable to us and will impact our ability to help our students succeed.”
The faculty stressed that it “does not fund nor edit the newspaper but does supply skilled students to work” at the paper, which it called “a crucial learning lab” that leads to internships and jobs.
It praised The Crow’s Nest’s coverage of consolidation as an example of the work the student journalists do.
“No other Tampa Bay media outlet has covered the issue as thoroughly,” the journalism faculty said. “More than one professor has remarked to us, ‘We wouldn’t know anything about consolidation if not for the Crow’s Nest.’
“This is high praise and we hope (the) administration appreciates that.”
The faculty also commented on Student Government’s threat – delivered March 29 – to freeze the newspaper’s funding “because of some missing paperwork.”
“It’s difficult for us to interpret this as anything other than an attempt to censor a free press,” the professors wrote.
Correction
The waterfront program was allocated $40,000 in the proposed 2019-2020 budget. A March 25 story incorrectly reported that the program was not allocated any funds.
Read the journalism faculty’s full letter below:
Jacob Diaz
Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Student SuccessDean of Students
Dear Jake,
The faculty of the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication are dismayed and concerned about the deep cuts that the Student Government is considering for the Crow’s Nest. The student newspaper is a crucial learning lab for our journalism students and for years it has led to internships and jobs for the dedicated reporters and editors there. The Journalism and Digital Communication Department does not fund nor edit the newspaper but does supply skilled students to work there. In the last year, as you know, the Crow’s Nest has become a vital source of information for the USFSP community on consolidation. No other Tampa Bay media outlet has covered the issue as thoroughly. More than one professor has remarked to us, “We wouldn’t know anything about consolidation if not for the Crow’s Nest.” This is high praise and we hope the administration appreciates that.
We train journalists in our department and it is imperative that the administration and the Student Government support us. This is part of our contribution to student success.
We also understand and appreciate that cuts are being made across the board because of a decline in enrollment, which translates to less funding. However, the proposed Crow’s Nest cut is more than double of most other groups. This 23 percent drop in funding will reduce the number of editions per semester, cut the number of copies printed, slash three paid positions, wipe out the photo department and halve the stipend of the advisor. All of this while the Student Government is proposing giving itself a nearly 19 percent increase.
We ask you to consider intervening and have a conversation with Dwayne Isaacs, director of Student Life. Our understanding is that a decision will be made on the final budget on April 5. However, the Crow’s Nest editor received a letter from Student Government on Friday threatening to cut off funding April 2 because of some missing paperwork. It’s difficult for us to interpret this as anything other than an attempt to censor a free press. These unfairly distributed cuts are unacceptable to us and will impact our ability to help our students succeed.
Thank you for your consideration.
On behalf of the faculty of Journalism and Digital Communication
Mark J. Walters, Professor and interim chair
This story was updated on April 2, 2019. A previous version of the story said that the student body president had until April 5 to approve the final budget. He actually has until April 9.
