{"id":15426,"date":"2020-02-25T16:54:19","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T00:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=15426"},"modified":"2020-02-25T16:54:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T00:54:19","slug":"the-incidental-fee-committees-partial-preliminary-decision-shows-large-overall-departmental-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-incidental-fee-committees-partial-preliminary-decision-shows-large-overall-departmental-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Incidental Fee Committee\u2019s partial preliminary decision shows large overall departmental cuts."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

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Every year, the Incidental Fee Committee is tasked with determining how they are going to allocate funds permitted by student fees, if any changes to the incidental fees need to be made, and which departments will be granted enhancements or have their budgets cut.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past month, the student-run IFC has been debating these aspects while facing a $150,000 deficit reportedly caused by low enrollment, culminating in a final 5.5% cut proposal that drastically affects student resources. Their preliminary decision resulted in a $270,941 cut to base budgets, and only one enhancement was granted \u2014 $250 towards Campus Recreation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we started making preliminary cuts, the IFC members agreed to being apprehensive towards cuts that would put student safety at risk, decrease student wages, interfere with the growth rate of incoming students, and decrease the accessibility of childcare,\u201d said Logan Baker, the Chairperson of the IFC.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, childcare was one of the top six areas affected by IFC\u2019s preliminary decision \u2014 confronted by a 7% in budget cuts \u2014 and many other departments are facing cuts which directly correlate to student pay and accessibility to campus resources.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another impact of the proposed 5.5% cut would be a reduction in student pay \u2014 and study space \u2014 through the closing of Werner University Center on Saturdays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The alternative to making these cuts is to raise student\u2019s incidental fees. Two plans are presently being considered to determine what students will be charged per campus credit, but a decision has not yet been reached regarding the projected percentage for that increase. President Rex Fuller has allegedly stated that he will veto any plan to raise the fees past 5%, a declaration that is being challenged by some students, department leaders and IFC members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Woolf, an elementary education major and <\/span>Judicial Administrator of ASWOU <\/span>stated that President Fuller\u2019s position, \u201ctakes power away from the students who should be making that decision\u201d and relayed his observation that \u201cstudents (at the first preliminary hearing) overwhelmingly stated that they would be willing to pay more for (departmental) services.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A 5% increase of the current $375 incidental fee would result in an $18.75 increase per student, or $393.75 total.<\/span><\/p>\n

If President Fuller vetoes the decision, mediations would then ensue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, students passionate about how their fees are being allocated still have the opportunity to advocate for themselves during the next open hearing on Thursday, February 27, from 4-6 p.m. in the Pacific Room located in the Werner University Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Infographic by Kyle Morden\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0 | News Editor Every year, the Incidental Fee Committee is tasked with determining how they are going to allocate funds permitted by student fees, if any changes to the incidental fees need to be made, and which departments will be granted enhancements or have their budgets cut.\u00a0 Over the past month, the student-run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":15408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}