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October 7, 1998
THE MICHIGAN REVIEW
MSAB~dget Continued from page 1 ated. In contrast to the ABTS, the NASHE was poorly administered and its effects on Washington were negligible to say the least." The most dramatic decrease in funding involved the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Students Commission. This year the commission received a total al1oc,'ltion of $50, which was a $1,950 decrease from last year. LGBT Commission Chairman Jen Trudell explained this significant shift in funds: "The previous chair of the LGBT Commission resigned before budget applications were submitted. The position was not filled until last week, when I was appointed chair. The $50 in the account is what was left over from last year's budget ... Next year I will try to get a larger budget EO you'll have something more exciting to write about." Trudell will likely request more money from the Committee Feserves for LGBT events. Receiving a healthy $2,000 allocation to organize upcoming eVEpts was the new kid on the MSA committee/ commission block, the Super-Fm Task Force. Thompson explained the Task Force's purpose: "Jeff 'Superfan' Holzhausen, last year's School of Public Health Representative, proposed a task force to work on projects bringing students and athletes closer together. He envisioned events where athletes from high and low profile sports could reach out to students, a higher profile for homecoming, and more organized support for sports which don t maintain the profile of, say, football or hockey. MSA Rep. Damian DeGoa took over the committee, and he has started scheduling such events." A hefty $3,000 increase in funding was allocated to the Women'] Issues Commission (WIC), bringing its budget up to $4,000 for thiscomillg year. Thompson defended this increZ'.se, stating, "They ran Affi!IDative Action 101 last year, a large and somewha" expensive even t, and had to draw funds from the Committee Reserves even elOugh a few MSA representatives and lots of WIC representatives were inv1}lved in
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its planning. They are planning another high profile event this year, focusing on eating disorders, and we wanted to fix the funding problems experienced last year." The Student Regent Task Force (SRTF) suffered a $900 decrease, bringing its total funding down to only $100. Thompson explained this shift in funding as a matter of fiscal efficiency and changing priorities: "The Student Regent drive is going to be an assemblywide issue this year. We expect most of the business addressed by the SRTF last year to be addressed by the MSA as a whole this year. That makes the Committee Reserves a more efficient budget line to use, because the whole assembly has access to the line, instead of the SRTF line which only the co-chairs have access to." The Environmental Issues Commission (EIC) dropped $3,000 in funding compared to last year. This was largely because the EIC needed greater funding last year as a result of its participation in the organizing and coordinating of the Environmental Theme Semester. Some critics argue that the EIC is an unnecessary appropriation of MSA funds since it has nothing to do with governing the campus or representing students' interests. They argue that dealing with environmental issues is not the proper function of a student government. EIC Chairman Kris Genovese responds to such criticisms: "The commission (EIC) has everything in the world to do with campus issues and governance. As you may know, the world's population has just surpassed the six billion mark, the last eight months were the hottest recorded in human history, and each year the people of Ann Arbor fill up Michigan Stadium with trash ten times. So recognizing these pressing issues in the world today, what can we do about it? Well my answer is that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. We have a duty, beginning with our own community, to live within the earth's resources; it's one of my missions at this University and it's also one of President Lee Bollinger's." rvR
MSA 1998-1999 Internal Budget Payroll $62,000 Operations $28,000 Committees and Commissions: Academic Affairs $50 Advice On-line $5,000 Budget and Priorities $168,000 Campus Governance $150 Campus Safety $150 Communications $4,000 Community Service Board $4,000 Community Service Fund $75,000 Community Service Reserve $9,000 Elections $7,000 Environmental Issues $3,000 External Relations $4,860 Health Issues' $100 International Students $100 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students $50 Minority Affairs $5,000 North Campus Affairs $200 Peace and Justice $50 Rules and Elections $200 Central Student Judiciary $50 Student Regent Task Force $100 Student Rights $500 Super-Fan Task Force $2,000 Voter Registration Task Force $50 Women's Issues $4,000 Committee Reserves $19,380 Total Internal Budget............ . $401,990
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