Thursday, May 30, 2013

PANIC! Budget Cuts Redux~

The list of proposed/finalized (idk?) budget cuts got released yesterday via email. You can find the full report here and the cuts themselves here. Warning: this document is long and kinda boring. I went through and pulled out some interesting cuts.
  • The Oxford CMRS Exchange Program has been cut completely. Wonder how Maggie O'Brien will feel about that~
  • Most departments lost some money, some more than others
  • Larry Vote's summer program (I think this is the program that sends singers to Alba every summer?) got cut from 25k to only 10k.
  • Nitze lost a lot (all?) of its money
  • Alba-Italy Director position was cut
  • Audio-Visual is losing 25k which sounds like a position has been cut
  • Faculty Development lost 5k which sounds like a lot less Wine for faculty functions
  • Campus Wellness Program has been cut (idk what that is, maybe First Responders Network?)
  • They are removing a trash dumpster from PG FUCK THIS BULLSHIT
  • River Concert Series is being reduced from 40k to 15k :/ :/ :/ (this was bound to happen eventually)
All of this is from my understanding of the spreadsheet, which may not be 100% accurate because even though I took a lot of accounting classes in high school, I never really understood it (we just shared our classwork via email, shoutout to B.A.T. c/o 2007 go Mavericks~) so I probably made some mistakes/have some misconceptions.

So there you have it, lots of cuts. I think International Education got his the hardest? Wonder how students will react~

17 comments:

  1. We should also note how little was cut from the President's budget...

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  2. I -think- that the Campus Wellness Program was related to mental health-related programs. It's sad to see it cut, but it was struggling when we graduated. I'm not really surprised.

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  3. Campus Wellness Program is not First Responders or any student mental health program-- it is a program for faculty and staff--it funds the Staff Picnic and other smaller programs about healthy eating and exercise.

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  4. This is not final. Faculty and departments are making recommendations to the budget committee, but its the President and the President's Council who make the final say on what gets cut. Here are some comments on the cuts that have been suggested:

    -Nitze Program is not being cut, they are cutting back on their speakers series. They've already promised money for travel and trips to the admitted and current Nitze students, do they can't cut that.

    -The cut to the audio-visual piece is not a person's position.

    -The Campus Wellness program is not the First Responders program. Its a staff/faculty committee that works on promoting health to the entire campus. Mostly towards other faculty and staff.

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  5. Wow. CMRS is gone? That is a major bummer. That was one of the reasons I chose St. Mary's. And Alba was back a lot too.

    Man, sad times...

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  6. We should also remember that these are expected to last for one fiscal year. As far as picking the stuff that we can do without best for a temporary time window, this seems pretty ok.

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    1. Not everything will be for just one year - there are one-time cuts, but there are also what they're calling "permanent" cuts, i.e., they're out of your budget and getting them back in will take time and $$$, and there's no guarantee it'll happen.

      Losing students is a 4-year problem.

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  7. Some of the cuts may last as long as 4 years because that's how long the school will be working with a smaller class (aka less tuition) ...

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  8. And there's the unnerving potential for a snowball effect of people hearing about the shortage and consequently dismissing SMCM as a possibility for themselves due to its perceived shortcomings, resulting in smaller class sizes down the line. This is a five alarm fire.

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  9. CMRS is alive and well. Funds cut were discretionary and budgeted years ago to promote linkages that never completely evolved. Plan to go if you are interested.

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  10. River concert series was bound to happen. They need more variety to stimulate more interest in the event.

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    1. What do you mean by more variety? The series performs pieces by various composers from Mozart to pieces by St. Mary's own professors. The series has been an important part of the community for a very long time, and provides great opportunities for students who study music at St. Mary's.
      The program is having a lot of trouble with money right now. Sometimes the weather is horrible on concert dates and barely anyone shows up to the concert and donations are lost. Also, these concerts are free to the public. People may $200 a ticket to see a concert like this at the Kennedy Center, and it's free. The orchestra has to fundraise itself to pay all the players. If you cut back on River Series, you're not just taking away a community event. You're laying off all those musicians on stage. They've been playing in that summer series for years; that's their job. They show up every concert- rain or shine in 100 degree weather and this is their payment. People should be trying to save the series, not cut it.

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  11. Remember these cuts were submitted by each department themselves for a larger review, not directed by any group of people or (god forbid) Urgo. This is the starting point, where people say "OK, we think we can cut this much from our individual departmental budget, and here's what will go if we do" - that way, when the larger community looks this stuff over, they know exactly what's being cut, and can start talking about what's important to think about keeping.

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  12. The Campus Wellness program actually doesn't have to do with mental health. It is more of a motivational fund meant to more or less make everyone feel good about working at St. Mary's.

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  13. I think the Larry Vote thing is this: http://www.smcm.edu/summer/choralarts/index.html

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