The current fiscal year has had serious consequences on the budget at Fairfield University, resulting in financial aid cuts, a loss of campus resources and the firings of 31 university staff and faculty members.
In a press release from June 2009, President Jeffrey von Arx, S.J. told the University community, “It will be a difficult time for all of us as we will be asked to do more with less, but these budget reductions are essential given the extraordinary economic times in which we find ourselves.”
While the money saved was allocated to a variety of areas, some students became upset upon hearing that a significant portion of the money was given to FUSA, the Fairfield University Student Association. In fact, FUSA received almost $300,000 this year — more funding than in previous years. This increase was due to an overall rise in tuition fees — specifically, an increase in the student activities fee from $85 to $95 per student. With an expected 3,125 students each paying this fee, FUSA received a substantial amount of funding with which to design programs for the semester.
David Axelrod, the Secretary of the Treasury of FUSA, explained the process behind the FUSA budget.
“The numbers are all based on the budgets and how the budgets were used from previous years,” said Axelrod. “That’s how we determine if the FUSA branches need more or less money [than previous years].” After a series of editing, redrafting, and approval, the budget is finally approved after about a month of work, says Axelrod.
Axelrod noted that the increase in FUSA funding was necessary in order to improve the quality of the student activities offered on campus. Rather than having many individual events, FUSA is working to combine smaller activities into larger, more entertaining events in an effort to make student activities “bigger, better and more exciting.”
“We’ve had awesome attendance at all of our events [so far this year],” Axelrod noted. “The last Late Night at the Stag had over 500 people there.”
Now the question becomes whether the allocation of such funds to FUSA was rightfully done — should the money have been put towards other uses, such as scholarships or staff employment?
Although areas of University life have suffered as a result of budget cuts across campus, attendance and enthusiasm has increased at many events, as a result of the added perks financed by the additional funds. The increase in school spirit and student involvement is a goal of the budget committee and they maintain student programming as a large focus of their negotiations, said Axelrod.
Students are torn over proper allocation for the funding. While some agree with its distribution, others believe it would be better spent in other areas of the university.
“I have been to very few FUSA-sponsored events, and I personally would much rather see it go to something that would be more practical, like small scholarships or books for students,” said Rachael Purri ‘12.
“I think that FUSA events are good and we definitely should put enough money into them,” Erika Gjesteby ‘12 said. “But we also need to be able to share the money as much as possible among different areas of campus life.”
“If students can’t even afford to come here, they wouldn’t be here for the programs anyway — you can’t have programs if you don’t even have students,” she added.
The budget committee expanded this year to include other university members, such as graduate students and faculty members from various departments. The committee members “want to be able to better communicate what’s going on,” Axelrod added. “Having more people from various departments with different perspectives … allows them to better communicate out what the committee is talking about.”
An open meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon in which any interested university community members were invited to voice their suggestions for budget negotiations this year.
Only six individuals showed up to the meeting. Of them, only three spoke. Executive Vice President Dr. William Weitzer helped to facilitate discussion at the budget meeting. He was not surprised at the low turnout, noting that similar past meetings have also had low attendance.
The meetings are offered despite such low turnouts because “it’s our effort to be as inclusive and transparent as possible” in creating the university budget, Weitzer said.
Debates over the budget in the current economic situation will continue to permeate university life during the current academic year. The effects of the recent budget cuts and allocations of funding will become apparent as the year progresses.
As Axelrod noted, “Nothing’s ever perfect.”
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