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Veterans' Services asked to draw up a new fee proposal

Committee questions student director on budget disparities

Cougar News Staff

Members of the Student Fees Advisory Committee asked the Veterans' Services Office on Monday to overhaul its student fee budget proposal by the end of the week, citing differences between budget requests and projected expenditures.

VSO representative Candice L. Caesar was faced with questions regarding an unbudgeted $15,293 furniture purchase and a discrepancy in the office's $3,500 budget for printing costs.

Caesar, a communication disorders senior, has been in charge of the VSO since its former coordinator, William G. Smiley, left a few months ago. Caesar said she doesn't have details on why certain expenditures were made.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I'm left with the impression that this (proposal) hasn't been carefully constructed," Wilford Weber, a faculty member of SFAC, said.

VSO, which helps members of the military transition into civilian student life, is asking SFAC for $68,839 in student fees for fiscal year 2005. Dean of Students William Munson asked Caesar to revise her presentation and re-submit it by noon Friday.

In other business Monday, Counseling and Psychological Services -- the organization that received the third-highest allocation recommendation from SFAC last year -- requested about $1 million, reflecting a $30,000 augmentation to cover maintenance and operation costs.

CAPS Director Ken Waldman said the additional request will keep the office from having to raise the fees it charges students to use its services.

"If we raise our fees, it's not going to generate that much more income, but it will make it more difficult for those students who use our services," Waldman said. 

SFAC recommended that CAPS receive $941,641 last year.

University Career Services, which had last year's fourth-highest recommendation, asked for $697,927. 

Director David Small discussed strides UCS has made in putting more of its services online, but Weber questioned him on being behind schedule on a proposal to put the Campus Recruiting Workshop online. That service was slated to be available in 2003, but is now expected to be online this spring.

"Sometimes our goals exceed our grasp, and I don't have any qualms about setting them out there," Small said.

The University Bands and Spirit Squad requested $204,730 in student fee money, representing a $54,330 increase in base SFAC funding. That increase will help cover salaries for cheerleading and dance coaches and staff, which were formerly part of the Athletics Department but are now under Band Director David Bertman's supervision.

Bertman explained that the band receives a great deal of help from the Moores School of Music, but the nature of the program -- part of the music school, yet including people not majoring in music -- makes its funding situation unique.

Other groups that held hearings Monday were the Center for Students with Disabilities, which requested $356,113; the Athletics Department, which made the largest request, estimated at $3.74 million; the Student Program Board, which asked for $215,387; and the Urban Experience Program in the Center for Mexican-American Studies, which requested $32,374.

SFAC hearings resume at 9:15 a.m. today.

With reporting by staff writers Jennifer Brzowski, Portia-Elaine Gant, Dusti Rhodes, Christian Schmidt and Matthew Shepherd.
 

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