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University addresses budget shortfall

SGA tightens belt, minimizes impact on students in internal budget reduction

Kathryn Rosenbaum
News Editor

As part of the $2 million budget shortfall that Xavier faces this academic year, Student Government Association has reduced its 2008-09 budget by cutting internal spending by $10,000.

Their goal was “to make students’ feel the cuts as little as possible,” according to SGA President Craig Scanlon.

The committee, comprised of Scanlon, Legislative Vice President Carter Johnson, Executive Vice President Josh Badall, Senate Coordinator Esteban Gamboa and SAC Chair Carolyn Boyle, met to go through the budget and make the necessary cuts.

Due to a university deadline to make budget changes, SGA and SAC were not able to meet as a whole.

SGA was informed of the budget cuts on Monday, Sept. 15, and given a submission deadline of 12 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18.

Internally, $2,000 was cut from unused summer stipends. Badall, Gamboa and Johnson were not at Xavier the entire summer, and did not spend all of the $1,000 they were allotted in summer stipends.

Cuts also came from SGA and SAC workshops. There was money left over from SAC’s summer workshop that was budgeted to cost $4,450.

In addition, SGA’s winter workshop, for which SGA originally budgeted $5,050, will be cut. There was a $2,000 cut from the workshops in total.
Another $2,000 came from the joint project fund of Senate, SAC and the Executives.

Since the Interfaith Prayer Center project was started by 2007-08 SGA President Maggie Meyer, but not completed, there was a $20,000 rollover into this fund from last year.

$2,000 was cut from SGA gifts and the end of the year banquet. Instead of spending $90 per person at the banquet, costs were cut to $70 per person.

SGA cut the $1,600 it had in unused funds from Club Day.

Much of this rollover came from cutting costs and lower rental costs of table and chairs.

They also cut the extra $900 resulting from renegotiating the shuttle contract.

Xavier Administrators originally told SGA that it would need to cut $20,000 from its budget. After they considered this figure, the committee wrote a letter to Academic Vice President and Provost Dr. Roger Fortin, Dean of Students Dr. Luther Smith and other administrators inquiring into how they came up with the $20,000.

Although SGA falls under the Department of Student Life & Leadership, its operating budget is 1 percent of undergraduate tuition, not the University’s entire operating budget.

If SGA were to cut $20,000 from its budget, then it would be operating under the 1 percent threshold. The committee found a budget agreement between SGA and the University made in 1992 that established the budget of 1 percent of undergraduate tuition. The agreement said “this percentage of tuition would mark the base budget for Student Government in the years ahead.”

In an opinion entry at the SGA meeting on Tues. Sept. 23, Gamboa explained that the committee did not want the budget to go below 1 percent this year to help protect future budgets.

The University recalculated the amount that SGA needed to cut and decided they needed to cut $6737. However, they decided to cut 10,000 because they were still functioning about 1 percent and the committee felt that “it was a time of need and it is responsible to give back to protect future student dollars and initiatives,” said Badall.

Although SGA needed to take budget cuts, there is still money available for clubs. Currently, SGA is the only places on campus clubs can go ask for funds because the Co-Curriculum Programming Board, which will provide funds for campus clubs is not operating yet.

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Admin. ready to report to Board of Trustees on budget

John LaFollette
Editor-in-Chief

Faced with a 1 percent budget shortfall for the current academic year, administration officials were forced to act quickly to re-balance the budget ahead of an upcoming meeting with the Board of Trustees.

Quick to point out that the shortfall is “not a crisis situation by any means,” Academic Vice President and Provost Dr. Roger Fortin said that the problem has essentially been resolved and that the presentation to the Board of Trustees at its meeting this Friday, Sept. 26, will be a positive one.

“The Board needed a rebalanced budget by the end of the week,” Fortin said. “We didn’t need more time [to rebalance the budget] because we did it,” he said.

The budget shortfall was attributed to a decline in registration for classes over the summer, and also for spring and fall graduate Education programs and a smaller number of full-time transfer students than expected, according to a Sept. 12 letter from Fortin and Maribeth Amyot, the vice president for financial administration.

The university’s budget committee recommended a budget based on projections for enrollment that were higher than the number of students, mostly at the graduate level, who actually registered for classes.

The largest overestimate was in graduate-level Education, Fortin said, though he cautioned against laying too much blame on any one program or department.

“The last thing that should happen is someone blaming any one other person,” he said.

And while the size of the graduate Education programs is relatively smaller, Xavier will maintain its grip on the largest market share in those programs located in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Fortin said that the university had a sense of the shortfall about a month ago, and sent notice to the Board of Trustees that budget adjustments might be imminent.

When an accurate measure of registration figures came in about two weeks ago, Fortin said, his office and Amyot’s office of financial administration worked to find a way forward.

The university-wide reductions were planned and implemented by the officials responsible for Xavier’s different administrative divisions.

“The division heads decided where reductions would be most effective and have the least adverse effect [for students’ learning],” Fortin said.

Money was found mainly by leaving certain staff positions unfilled, by adjusting purchasing and maintenance schedules of university equipment and by reducing operating budgets.

Fortin and Amyot met with Xavier President Fr. Michael Graham, S.J., on Tuesday to give Fr. Graham a progress report. The President’s office said that details of the meeting were unavailable.

One of the most visible expenditures on campus, construction work on Hoff Academic Quadrangle, will not be affected by the reductions, Fortin said in the letter.

The financing of this project comes from a separate fund, which is one of the steps the university has taken to ensure that the construction is not affected by the university’s operating budget.

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Graham delivers on Duke trip

President promises third charter bus for game

John LaFollette
Editor-in-Chief

Excited to showcase a huge Musketeer cheering section for national television cameras when the men’s basketball team takes on Duke later this year, Xavier President Fr. Michael Graham, S.J., has promised to provide a third bus for students to make the trip to New Jersey in December.

Fr. Graham joins a team of funders that will provide the $11,000 to pay for three charter buses to take students to and from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Students will be responsible for paying the $75 for lower-bowl seats.

Matt Robinson, president of X-Treme Fans, said he spoke with Fr. Graham after 10 p.m. Mass on Sunday about the progress his group had made in organizing the charter buses. That was when Fr. Graham made the commitment.

“He said, ‘You have your third bus, I’ll take care of it,’” said Robinson. Robinson then promised Fr. Graham a raucous turnout, to which Graham said, “I want my bus to be the craziest.”

“He kind of took it as he personally being able to have an impact on this,” Robinson said.

Men’s basketball head coach Sean Miller was enthusiastic about the increased size of the Xavier student section.

“They have helped us create a great atmosphere at Cintas Center and wherever they have followed us,” Miller said.

“This is another example of that great spirit, and I appreciate the support and I know our players feel the same way,” he said.

X-Treme Fans coordinated funding efforts with the Student Government Association, the Athletic Department, the All For One Club, and the division of Student Life and Leadership, and had already raised enough money to pay for two charter buses.

Fr. Graham’s additional bus will add 54 seats.

After seats are allotted for chaperones and for the X-treme Fans members who have coordinated the trip, there will be between 140 and 150 seats on the buses.

Those seats will be determined by a lottery that will take place on Monday, Oct. 13. Students will have a chance to sign up for the lottery between 1 and 4 p.m.

The same rules that govern normal basketball ticket pick-up will apply (one person may present two All-Cards), according to Robinson.

Pairs will be drawn until the buses are filled, and a full $75 deposit for tickets will be required from those who are drawn.

The game is at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 20, the day after final exams officially end the Fall Semester.

The buses will leave at around 10 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, and will travel through the night, arriving in East Rutherford roughly 12 hours later in time for a pre-game party arranged by the All For One Club and area alumni associations.

Buses will return to Cincinnati after the game, arriving sometime early Saturday morning. Robinson said that possible arrangements are being discussed that would allow for travelling students to have an extended stay in residence halls, similar to the accommodations made for last season’s game against Tennessee.

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