Groups face uncertain future due to SGA cuts

At least 13 dissatisfied student organizations plan to appeal their funding allotments to the SGA tonight and request more money than they were originally given — a process many student leaders said will ultimately determine if these groups can even exist next year.

Students from the University Help Center, WMUC Radio and MaryPIRG, among others, will make an appearance at tonight's Student Government Association meeting to contest their slashed budgets, since student activities fees are their only source of funding.

Last month, about 250 student groups — not including club sports teams — requested more than $2.5 million in primary funds, but the SGA only had about $730,000 to give out. As a result, most student groups saw their budgets dramatically cut.

The body has $50,000 in leftover money to give to student groups that effectively advocate for more funding, according to SGA Vice President of Financial Affairs Rob Mutschler. Any remaining money will be set aside for next year's Group Help Fund, Mutschler said.

But for many groups, there is much more at stake tonight than money.

The student-run Help Center, which provides a 24-hour crisis hotline for students, was not allocated enough funds to pay its phone bill, which group members said is crucial to ensuring suicidal students are getting the help they need.

"It's just a really important service that we provide, and if the SGA isn't even willing to give us enough to pay the phone bill, it's like less than the minimum," said junior dance major Sadie Rothman, a Help Center counselor.

Amanda Simmons, the Help Center's financial director, said she requested more than $4,000 from the SGA and was granted about $1,400. Simmons said the group has requested twice that amount in the past, but she applied for the bare minimum this year knowing so many student groups were hurting financially. Simmons said SGA legislators are aware the group hinges on tonight's outcome.

"The SGA is actually being pretty responsive to our concern because of the fact that we will not exist," she said.

WMUC Radio will also be struggling to make ends meet next year if the group is not allocated more money. The station requested around $27,000 but was given about $7,000 in primary funding; the group needs about twice that amount to cover the costs of its phone and Internet bill, general manager Mario Pareja-Lecaros said. Because listener call-ins and live Internet broadcasts are a vital part of WMUC's operations, funding for those lines is crucial to the organization, Pareja-Lecaros said. WMUC will request another $5,000 in appeals tonight.

"We're basically just trying to get the minimum funding we need to operate," Pareja-Lecaros said.

If they are not granted more funding, Pareja-Lecaros said the station will be forced to cut broadcasts of smaller sports events.

MaryPIRG, a student lobbyist group, is the only student group facing salary cuts for two of the organization's leaders. The only salaries the SGA is otherwise obligated to fund are those in the Office of Undergraduate Student Legal Aid, the STAR Center and Student Entertainment Events.

Since 1973, the SGA has funded the pay of MaryPIRG's state director and campus organizer on the condition that students approve of MaryPIRG's work. Every two years on the SGA elections ballot, students must vote on whether they want MaryPIRG to continue. Last year, about 70 percent of voters approved of MaryPIRG's work, said Jason Donofrio, the campus organizer.

MaryPIRG — which originally requested nearly $60,000 but was granted $4,000 — will ask for an additional $44,000 tonight. If its request is approved, $22,000 will go to state director Johanna Neumann and $22,000 will go to Donofrio. Neither of them are students; they are employees of the organization. In their roles, Donofrio recruits and trains students on the campus and runs a for-credit intern program, currently with 52 interns, and Neumann lobbies in Annapolis.

Because MaryPIRG leads on-campus initiatives such as access to open-source textbooks and voter registration — issues involving collaboration with the SGA — Donofrio said it would be in the legislature's best interest to increase MaryPIRG's funding.

But Mutschler said the finance committee ultimately chose to cut MaryPIRG's salaried positions because funding was especially tight. This year, student groups requested $400,000 more in primary funding than last year, even though the body didn't have much more to work with.

"With tight budget restraints this year, we felt that salaries were not something that should be funded unless they were mandated to be funded," Mutschler said.

At the beginning of tonight's SGA meeting, members of each student group will have about five minutes to address the body and explain why the primary funding they received was inadequate. Beyond that, members from each group will not be allowed to speak but will instead be represented by a legislator who will appeal on their behalf. The full legislature will then vote on which appeals to fund.

Although some groups' fate ultimately lies in legislators' hands, Pareja-Lecaros said WMUC has already begun brainstorming creative ways to fundraise if the station isn't granted more money, and Simmons noted the Group Help Fund as an alternative that would allow the Help Center to scrape by. Mutschler said these kinds of actions will likely be carried out by many groups.

"I think we're well past the days where the SGA can be the sole source of funds for all student groups," he said. "We can't fund as much as we could anymore, so student groups are going have to look elsewhere."

meehan at umdbk dot com