For the past two weeks, the Student Fee Committee has been deciding how and where to distribute the money from student fees in a series of budget deliberations.
The deliberations are public, though the groups are not obligated to attend. During the meetings, the committee inspects the group’s submitted budget, sometimes line by line, determining what items are necessary and what items are not.
If a group disagrees with the committee’s findings, they are free to appeal the decision in the next stage of the committee’s deliberations.
This year, the committee is facing a budget shortfall of about $6 million, according to student body president Hannah Fisher. Student fees have brought in a total of $12 million, while student groups are asking for about $18 million.
One of the ways the committee is dealing with the budget shortfall is by instituting budget cuts across the board for all groups. One of the most drastic of those cuts is limiting each group’s travel to two in-state trips and one out-of-state trip.
This will likely be appealed by many groups, since many groups routinely travel both in and out of state. Each group’s appeal will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
Other budget cuts made to all groups include limiting the office-supply budget to $600 a year to encourage sustainability and reuse. Stipends and salaries for each group have also been capped at $206,500 per year.
If a group wants to hire a designer to create promotional materials, the hourly rate for that designer has been set at $15 per hour.
Portland State’s radio station, KPSU, was one of the groups whose budget was up for review on Wednesday of last week. Station manager Jeremy Hardy was on hand during the initial hearing.
Despite some allegations that the Student Fee Committee is less than objective this year, KPSU has had no problems with the budget review process.
“I’ve noticed that this year’s committee is more involved than last year’s,” Hardy said, who attended last year’s hearings as well in a different capacity. “They seem to care more about the money and where it’s going.”
KPSU is one of the groups that plan to appeal the trip-reduction cut. There are a limited number of radio-oriented conferences nationwide and even fewer in Oregon, Hardy said.
In order for KPSU employees to “learn the ropes” of the broadcasting business, attendance at conferences in both New York and Austin is extremely helpful, he added.
Hardy wasn’t worried about how the initial hearing would go.
“I think everything we’ve requested is fair, and I’m prepared to defend what we’ve asked for. I mean, that’s what the appeals are there for,” Hardy said.
Reid McCargar of Portland State Professional Sound didn’t agree with Hardy’s optimistic outlook.
“The whole process has been extremely unprofessional,” he said. “I’m not in the least bit comfortable with how our budget is being reviewed.”
According McCargar, the SFC discussed his budget without calling his group into the room, and then tabled the deliberations until next week pending the receipt of some documentation that “they already had.”
Discussing his group’s budget is difficult, McCargar said, because some of the equipment requested is “highly technical and not familiar to the average person.”
Professional Sound is one of the groups that was asked a potentially troubling question about its ethnic makeup during initial budget request hearings earlier this year. After a disagreement with one of the SFC board members, McCargar’s outlook is cautious.
“I hope we’ll be dealt with objectively,” he said. “I’m just worried about personal vendettas.”
PSPS’s new hearing is scheduled for Monday.