ASUCSD Fixes $115,000 Budget Error

The Associated Students of UCSD (ASUCSD) passed the 2017-18 Executive Budget last Wednesday after resolving a miscalculation of almost $115,000, which was overlooked until an hour before the weekly 6:00 p.m. ASUCSD Senate meeting.

The annual budget allocates $5.5 million of student activity fees to student organizations, concerts, events, and various student government programs. ASUCSD interim Executive Director Ankit Vyas sent the budget to ASUCSD members on Friday, Oct. 13, but it contained a $114,965.64 miscalculation, which placed ASUCSD in a deficit. After resolving all but $4831.70 of the deficit, the ASUCSD spent seven hours in discussion about closing the gap.

“As to why the numbers were off as much as they were, that was just a miscommunication between the Student Life Business Office and Associated Students,” said ASUCSD Financial Controller Andrew Thai. “That is something I need to work on to make sure we are able to fix [it] in a more acceptable manner.”

A miscommunication between ASUCSD Executives and the Student Life Business Office (SLBO), the university-run office overseeing student government finance, created the error. The Student Sustainability Collective income in the budget should have totaled $67,450.36, but instead was listed as $182,416, creating a $114,965.64 miscalculation. Thai, along with the rest of ASUCSD Executives, were not notified of the error until approximately an hour before the Senate meeting in which the budget would be passed. The ASUCSD Senate, in charge of passing the budget, was not notified of the miscalculation before the meeting.

Thai notified the Senate after Engineering Senator Colin Feeney requested the budget be reviewed and passed line-by-line to ensure that all Senate members read the document. Approximately an hour into the meeting, Thai presented a newly revised budget to ASUCSD that closed the deficit after a motion failed to pass the budget as a whole.

The Senate passed all but $4831.70 of the proposed cuts, choosing to reject Thai’s recommendation to cut the newly established stipends of seven of the 12 Associate Vice President Chief of Staff positions. There was no interest among the Senate members to cut the stipends, prompting various cuts throughout the budget to close the remaining deficit. Cuts to Administrative costs, the Offices of Environmental Justice Affairs, and Finance and Resources, made up of the majority of changes to close to the deficit.

The budget of the Office of Spirit and Athletics, in charge of increasing the role of intercollegiate athletics on campus, was the first and most widely debated, resulting in three failed attempts to cut its programming and outreach budget. Campus Wide Senator Miguel Angel Tapia initially motioned to have the budget cut by $2000 but then reduced the suggested cut to $1000.

Campus Wide Senators Aseel Ali and Sneh Lochan, and AVP of Local Affairs Denasia Gaines agreed with Tapia’s suggestion to cut the outreach budget and said that compared to other issues such as meeting basic needs, athletics should not be prioritized.

“We have real issues at UCSD and athletics is not one of them,” Gaines said. “A game will not make a difference to students’ lives, and if you disagree, you need to check your priorities.”

The senators and Gaines suggested that AVP of Spirit and Athletics Meri Yedigaryan collaborate with any of the six college councils to make up for the proposed cuts to programming, but Muir College Senator Roy Velasquez and Sixth College Senator Caroline Siegel Singh contended that it would be unfeasible for any college council to fund Spirit and Athletics’ programming.

Senators Raian Kutubi and Feeney argued that proposed cuts were unwarranted, given UCSD’s plan to move to Division 1 Athletics. They also suggested that any further cuts would be unfair, considering that the office was already slated to receive $10,000 less than was allocated in the previous year’s budget.

“If we are looking towards the future for D1, trimming fat from an office that has already been cut will not improve student opportunity or spirit,” said Kutubi.

After two failed motions and a roll call vote of 12 for the cut, 18 against, and 2 abstaining, the motion failed. In order to close the remaining $4000 gap, the ASUCSD Senate made  swift cuts to administrative expenses such as office supplies, resolving the deficit and concluding the budget meeting with a $700 surplus.  

Overall, the budget saw an increase of approximately $400,000 in student activity fee income due to the increase in student population compared to 2016-17. Compared to the previous Executive Budget, there were significant increases in allocations to concerts and events, student organizations, and ASUCSD stipends.

ASUCSD adjourned the meeting at 1:01 a.m. after tabling two large budget items, the Food Pantry and KSDT Radio Station, to the following week’s meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Mo Al Elew is a Staff Writer for The Triton.