The Student Fee Committee recently reported that the 2009-10 budget proposals from student groups on campus has increased by almost $6 million more than last year to bring the total to $18 million.
While increases in budget requests have been seen across all student groups, one particular group that has seen its budget increased by three times as much as last year is the Portland State Professional Sound.
This year, Portland State Pro Sound requested $258,790 in funding through the SFC, an amount that represents a 300 percent increase from last year’s allocation of $97,982.
Group coordinator Joel Eisenhower said part of the amount is for a one-time purchase of speakers to be hung in the Smith Ballroom, which will replace the current speakers that Eisenhower considers inadequate to provide service for a venue as large as the Ballroom.
“Our current speakers don’t cover the space well, so what happens is the people in the front get blasted with very loud sound while the people in the back don’t hear anything,” Eisenhower said.
Co-coordinator Reed McCarger defended the need to have adequate sound system.
“At the recent MLK celebration, the sound system was so horrible that the speech was unintelligible,” he said. “It’s very embarrassing to have such an esteemed speaker [civil right leader Andrew Young] come deliver a speech and not be able to provide adequate sound support.”
However, some members of the SFC have questioned whether the group truly deserves that much money.
During last Wednesday’s initial hearing with the SFC, McCarger said he felt a little bit insulted when the group was asked by the vice-chair Tajna Miljevic to describe their group makeup in term of gender and ethnicity.
According to Eisenhower, after the meeting Miljevic said, “I’m looking at you guys and I see a bunch of white dudes.”
“The majority of our group is white, but that is not uncharacteristic for the audio industry, worldwide, only 10 percent of audio engineers are women,” Eisenhower said. “Yes, it’s a shame and we try to change that but the talent pool that we have to draw from is very small, especially for PSU where we don’t have an audio program.”
Miljevic commented on the issue: “The SFC is deliberately looking at how all student groups and departments are attempting to be more inclusive to underrepresented minorities on campus.
The fact that a group is ‘open to everyone’ is not enough in terms of being inclusive. When you are not doing active outreach to students that are in many ways marginalized on our campus, there is not equal footing in opportunities and access to resources.”
“Asking the demographic make up of any institution or group should not be an offensive question but to enhance diversity,” Miljevic added. “If PSPS is hoping to expand their services on campus to be able to comply with demand, they should consider expanding their efforts in seeking students who could benefit from being part of it. And I am sure, PSPS would greatly benefit as well.”