MORE THAN SPOKEN WORD EMOTIONS RUN HIGH IN MOVING STORYTELLING POETRY PERFORMANCE AT THE BARN
Highlander University
Volume 64
of
C a l i f o r n i a , R ive r s i d e
Serving the UCR community since 1954
18 Issue 06
FOR THE WEEK OF TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
ASUCR approves $15,000 in budget cuts, R’Gear program also reduces costs
Fifth Food Truck Festival opens at UCR
IXIA JOHNSON Spooky Skeleton Writer
AARON GRECH Spooky Skeleton Writer
ASUCR Vice President of Finance Shafi Karim proposed approximately $15,000 in budget cuts for what was described as wasteful ASUCR spending. The cuts, which eliminated food costs for meetings, some promotional expenses and reduced student assistants’ work hours were approved by the ASUCR senate by a unanimous vote. Originally, Karim planned to cut a total of $10,000 from the budget, which reduced meeting expenses of many of the executive cabinet members, with the exception of the Vice President of External Affairs, Mohammed “Momo” Hussein, whose position requires travelling outside of the campus. In order to determine wasteful spending, Karim analyzed the past five years of ASUCR budget expenses. Many of the expenses that took up significant amount of money from the budget involved meeting expenses, usually reserved for food and a $1,000 line item in the budget reserved for candy. “All of this is aligned in our effort to be more efficient with student fees so we can actually fund services that directly impacts and returns value to greater number of students,” voiced Karim. According to Karim, much of these expenses are used to serve the student government, rather than the entirety of the student body. By allowing these cuts, Karim hopes to support programs such as R’Gear, which will impact students on a larger scale. Despite the unanimous approval by the senate, some of these cuts raised concerns during the public comment section of the meeting by staff members in the ASUCR front office. In accordance with Shafi’s budget cuts, the hours for students working in the front office were reduced, with student assistants no longer working during summer, spring and winter breaks along with reduced hours during
Admin outnumbers faculty within UC
JIMMY LAI / HIGHLANDER A student picks up an order of fries from the Belly bombz truck during the fifth annual food truck festival.
SHARON LIU-BETTENCOURT Contributing Witch
Hundreds of UCR students flocked around the Bell Tower and the Hub Plaza on Thursday, Oct. 22 to usher in the return of UCR’s bi-annual food truck festival. The series of festivals began in 2012 when a student approached the ASUCR senate with the idea of temporarily bringing large amounts of food trucks onto the UCR campus in order to foster campus spirit and pride, encouraging students to remain after classes and support
small local businesses. The project was then quickly taken up by then UCR Senator Chris Salvador who worked in connection with Hub Dining and Transportation and Parking Services in order to hold the very first Food Truck Festival. The festival was well received and eventually the ASUCR Office of Internal Affairs picked up the idea and committed to hold it again the next school year. Last school year, the event gained so much traction it was scheduled to be held biannually. “I love seeing the variety of cultures and ethnicities
represented at the Food Truck Festival. I think the festival owes its success to its diversity,” said junior political science major Paul Van. Last week’s festival became UCR’s fifth food truck festival and featured 22 food trucks. UCR students once again got the opportunity to taste old favorites such as the crispy, twisted potatoes of the Tornado Potatoes Truck, the Korean Mexican fusions of the Rice Ball of Fire and the mouthwatering lobster rolls from Maine ► SEE FOOD, PAGE 5
HIGHLANDER club CHEFS spotlight
SEE WHAT’S COOKING AT UCR’S PREMIERE CULINARY CLUB
► SEE ASUCR, PAGE 4
NEWS 1 • OPINIONS 7 • FEATURES 13 • A&E 17 • SPORTS 28
14
In recent years, the UC system has faced growing criticism regarding the administration-faculty ratios at UC schools. With 10 campuses scattered around the state and a $27 billion operating budget, which exceeds that of 25 other U.S. states. In response, major concern has been raised over whether this money is being well spent. Student enrollment in the statewide school system has increased by 38 percent since the year 2000, with the number of managers and administrators doubling and the amount of tenured and tenure-track faculty members remaining more static. Hiring an increasing number of administrators has been deemed necessary by UC officials in order to keep up with rising technology and information demands. UC data signifies that from 2004 to 2014, the amount of managers and senior professionals has risen by 60 percent, while tenure-track faculty members have only experienced an 8 percent growth in the same decade. Last year, a debate sparked between Governor Jerry Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano on how to make up for lack of funds to pay for payroll and retirement costs, hiring more faculty members and growing the number of students at UC schools. Brown suggested that costcutting efforts be made, such as greater reliance on online courses. Pension plan debt was created in the 1990s when employees no longer were required to pay into their pension plan due to overfunding at the time. The opposite now exists, necessitating the use of $1.3 billion each year toward paying the existing $12 billion unfunded liability, one of the leading and commonly unrecognized UC expenses that takes away from spendable funds. A consensus was reached in May that increased state funding and froze tuition rates for two years, and reestablished the way pension plans were set up in the UC system. Weeks following this agreement, a number of already well-paid ► SEE ADMIN, PAGE 6
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