The college’s student government budget for 2014-15 is 23 percent smaller. This means that student clubs will also take a 23 percent cut if the proposed budget is approved.
There are two main factors making the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College prepare for less funds, according to Alicia Moore, director of Student and Enrollment Services at COCC. First, enrollment is expected to drop five percent, bringing in less student fees than this year. Moore called the process of predicting enrollment a science with a “little bit of art to it.”
“[Enrollment] affects student government directly because they operate off of student fees,” Moore said. “Student enrollment has a huge effect on our environment.”
But student enrollment isn’t the major factor bringing enrollment down: Most of it is the lack of carryover funds from this year.
In recent years, student government has been fiscally conservative enough that by the end of the year, they had rollover funds to help with the next year’s budget. However, this year, the carryover was nearly $50,000 less than ASCOCC had anticipated, Moore said.
This caused the 23 percent cut to be needful, according to Moore.
Impact on clubs
Clubs that host events may be especially affected by the cut. The Latino club hosts three events per year: Day of the Dead, the Latino Dance Festival, and Cinco de Mayo, and their budget will be reduced by nearly $500 next year, according to Amalia Grijalva, president of the Latino Club.
Though the events are also funded through Student Life, ASCOCC and the Multicultural Program, Grijalva could see the decreased budget “restricting” the Latino Club’s ability to provide quality events.
“We like to provide food, we like to provide childcare, we like to bring organizations and people in to enrich the events,” Grijalva said. “If we want to keep doing all those events at the same level of quality … I see [the budget cut] potentially being an issue.”
Scott Greenstone | The Broadside
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