On March 5, after three days of hearings, the student government’s Student Fees Commission recommended cuts to funding for several student services and scholarship funds.
Representatives for those entities say that would likely impact their ability to help students.
Reasons given for the proposed cuts ranged from changes in the Student Government Association bylaws to the university needing to take responsibility for some expenses. The cuts totaled $221,193.
The Student Senate will discuss the proposed budget and can make changes before passing it at its Wednesday evening meeting.
Scholarship funds
The commission recommended cutting three educational opportunity — or scholarship — funds. These include scholarship funds for debate, Disability Support Services and esports.
Wichita State Debate requested $25,000 for its scholarship fund, which debate director Phillip Samuels said helps the program attract potential students. The commission recommended no funding for the scholarships.
“We use the SGA money to help us recruit and attract kids,” Samuels said. “And we get what I think are some of the best kids, not just in the Elliott School, but in the liberal arts and sciences.
“It may not seem like a lot of money to (the commission), but to a kid who has no way to go to college, $2,000 a year is a lot of money.”
Samuels said, since the commission made its recommendation, prospective students have reached out to him, concerned about potentially losing that money to go to WSU. He and assistant debate coach Thomas Babcock said they plan to speak at Wednesday’s senate meeting and ask the senate to consider adding funding for the scholarships.
“If we lose those students to any number of other schools who can offer them money, then that makes it harder for us to field not just a competitive team, but a team,” Samuels said.
The Sunflower reached out to the Varsity Esports and Disability Support Services for a response about the proposed cuts to their scholarship funding, but neither responded as of March 11.
Student services
The commission recommended over $20,000 less funding to Health Outreach Prevention and Education Services than it requested. The funding recommendation also includes a stipulation that the money only pays for student employee positions.
“The fee process is a difficult one, and I know that SGA is doing the best they can with a lot of competing priorities for limited funding,” HOPE Services director Marci Young wrote in a statement to The Sunflower. “The proposed reductions to HOPE Services are disappointing and I am concerned about the potential impact on students.”
Young also said the cuts would leave the position in charge of the Prevention Ambassador Program with insufficient funding. The program works to spread mental health awareness on campus.
“During the hearings, questions were raised about operational changes involving HOPE Services,” wrote Jessica Provines, the university’s assistant vice president for wellness and chief psychologist, in her own statement to The Sunflower. “We appreciate those questions and the opportunity to provide additional context. These changes are connected to new workforce training contracts and were designed to shift certain public health and prevention responsibilities away from clinical providers in Student Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services.”
The commission also proposed a $121,144 cut to Campus Recreation. Student Body Treasurer and Finance Commission Chair Luke Bumm motioned for the cut, referencing the amount of funding going toward the Shocker Rowing Team within Campus Recreation’s budget as the reason for the cuts.
“As I look at Campus Recreation as a whole, this is going to have an impact on all the programming, in my opinion,” Shocker Rowing Team Coach Calvin Cupp said.
Cupp said student worker positions would possibly be cut if the budget passes as proposed. With that comes a “redistribution of … duties” within staff that would remain in rowing’s budget.
The Sunflower reached out to the Office of Student Accommodations and Testing and Varsity Esports to speak with them about the cuts to their student support services funding, but none responded.
The Student Senate meets at 7:30 Wednesday in the Rhatigan Student Center, room 233. Members of the public can speak in the public forum portion at all senate meetings.
The proposed student fees budget will be presented at the March 11 Student Senate meeting. The Senate will vote to pass or reject the budget if it chooses to not make any alterations. If the Senate chooses to make alterations, the vote will take place at the March 25 meeting.
