Nathan Soltz
In response to Eric Frey’s editorial published Feb. 28:
Thank you for your letter to the student body regarding the IFC process; however, I do have quite a few concerns. For the sake of length, I’m not going to address all of them as in-depth as I would like to, but I am going to make a very specific concern known for the sake of the student body.
Your letter makes it sound as though the timeline for cutting ASWOU began with the IFC telling ASWOU that the budget was going to be cut $28,000 for OSA, and then ASWOU deciding that they would, instead, gut clubs and organizations with that cut.
Simply put, this is factually inaccurate. The IFC mandates that all the IFC-funded organizations present what a 5 percent and 10 percent cut package would look like. In ASWOU’s 10 percent cut package, it was made very clear that the only flexible budgets for a cut that significant would be the clubs and organizations that it funds. All along, the IFC knew that a 10 percent cut would be devastating to Western’s clubs and it, at its sole discretion, decided to make that cut.
The way the IFC has been representing this process to the students of Western Oregon University has been misleading, deceitful and displays a gross aberration for the democratic processes that the IFC members are supposed to be upholding. Trying to pit the students of Western against ASWOU because the IFC has decided to slash funding to their clubs is irresponsible and egregious.
I’ve seen all of the publicly-available responses submitted by students regarding the preliminary budget and I am aware of several more which have been sent directly to you by students who have expressed their concerns to me. The clubs which you are gutting know very well what your budget does and will not be fooled by the red herring explanation the IFC has given regarding the cuts.
In an annual budget which represents an overall budget reduction of 0.3 percent, a net reduction of $12,644, your cut to ASWOU — and, by extension, the clubs and organizations of Western — is roughly 10 percent. The cut to ASWOU of $28,000, a net of $23,103, is near twice the next largest net cut — $12,374 to Creative Arts, which the department itself asked for.
As a percentage, the ASWOU cut is more than double the next largest cut. Not to mention that ASWOU aside, the average cut, to those organizations which were cut, was 1.8 percent. Perhaps more strikingly, half of all the budgets stayed completely unchanged, including over $1 million allocated to Athletics —$1,284,159 to be exact — the single largest line-item in the IFC’s budget. Note that Athletics also receives funding from both the general fund and the Foundation — the only department or organization on campus to do so.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is quoted as saying “budgets are moral documents.” Maybe you were totally oblivious to the grave impact your proposed ASWOU cut would have on the clubs and organizations on our campus and the students they represent — I dare not infer what the IFC’s thought process was if you were aware of this impact and proposed the cut anyway.
Now that there is no way you can still claim ignorance to the consequences of this action, I have faith that the IFC will reconsider this gross neglect of duty to the students it alleges to represent. I have faith that the IFC will not cut the Associated Students of Western Oregon University and, by extension, every single student on this campus. This is a moment of truth. When the dust settles, where will the IFC stand: with students or against them? As it is now, the IFC is looking pretty alone.
To publish a response, contact the editor at journaleditor@wou.edu
