This article was originally published in part in The Horizon‘s May 16 print newsletter. It was then updated and published again in the Spring 24’s print Horizon Magazine, which came out June 10, 2024 – archive links forthcoming. A letter of response was submitted in July by Alaina Hirsch on behalf of the 2023-24 ASWCC Executive Board. We welcome further student, staff, or faculty comments or Letters of Response as we hope to continue exploring this topic in the next school year.
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An important issue has students fired up about how tutoring services in the Learning Commons are being funded.
The 2024/2025 proposed Services and Activities (S&A) budget draft was brought before the ASWCC Senate for review and approval during the May 6 meeting. Several students spoke during the open comment period regarding decreased funding.
Although funding was decreased or was granted for fewer dollars than requested across many ASWCC activities and organizations, most of the gallery comments addressed how decreased funding for the Math and Writing Centers has impacted students previously, and how additional decreases in funding will impact student success in the future.
S&A funds pay for the stipends student tutors receive for working in the Writing and Math Centers. The Learning Center is only open during weekdays, making tutoring at WCC unavailable on the weekends. Decreased funds thus means tutoring times will have to be cut even more for next school year, removing tutoring services for many students whose schedules do not match.
Students with obligations outside of WCC may not be able to make the best use of the Learning Center during open hours due to work schedules and family needs. Many students take the inconvenient route of using the library and resources at Western Washington University during the weekends.
Many S&A fund requests for next year were not fully funded, averaging about 25% less than what was requested. Some line items and programs other than the Learning Center received significantly less than hoped for, including the Student Life and Engagement team at 30% less, Performing Arts at 55% less, Pod Leaders at 40% less, graphic design staff for the Office of Student Life and Development at 48% less and The Horizon at 40% less than requested.
However, the lack of funding for the Learning Center reflects an additional reduction of 10% in funding compared to this academic year’s allocation. This follows a trend: last year’s ASWCC initial budget proposal called for nearly a 90% reduction of funding for the Learning Center, which was revised to a 20% reduction after outcry (p.12). The proposed budget for next year would reduce this amount even further. This means the learning center will actually have less for tutor stipends in the 2024/2025 academic year than it did for 2023/2024.
The S&A Budget Committee proposal, which can be viewed on the ASWCC webpage, provided this reasoning behind their decision:
“Due to limited S&A fees, this budget line has been decreased. While there are many factors contributing to the decision to begin tapering off S&A funding to the Learning Center, there is also an understanding of the negative impact a large change can make on the program. The purpose of Services and Activities fees is to provide co-curricular and extra-curricular programming and activities for students. Tutoring provides incredible curricular value to students, but it is the belief of the ASWCC that the S&A Fee Budget is not the appropriate funding source for this program.
“The ASWCC upholds the previous S&A committee’s recommendations and has reduced funding by 10%. The Tutoring Center has access to institutional funding that, alongside the ASWCC contribution, will support the work the Tutoring Center does. The committee recommends that S&A fees be used as a supplemental funding source that supports the success of our instructional division.” (p.11)
The institutional funding referred to in this recommendation has not been forthcoming, and will not be a part of the WCC Operations Budget for the 2024/2025 school year. WCC does, however, provide funding for the facilities and faculty coordinators in partnership with the S&A funding for student tutors, just as it does with some other college services and resources.
It is important to note that this year’s drop in enrollment has caused a gap between the S&A funding requested and budget available, so hard choices were inevitable. Only a few programs received most of their funding requests. And although the committee did increase funding across many programs, the increases were less than those programs estimated and requested as their needs.
Yet, student outcry centers around the cuts to the Learning Center tutoring programs. Many students see the Learning Commons as a place to find their sense of community at WCC, and gain assistance in achieving academic success and accessing the broad base of knowledge available at the learning commons.
Transparency or Subterfuge?
After lengthy discussion from students in the gallery and among the senate, the draft proposal was not approved at the May 6 Senate meeting.
A special S & A Budget Committee meeting was scheduled for May 8 to address the issues in the budget prior to the first presentation to the WCC Board of Trustees. Any changes were to be made prior to the next Senate meeting on May 20 with the final draft to be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval after the Senate review and approval.
When asked for verification of this information, the ASWCC Senate indicated the meeting had been changed to May 10.
It was hoped that the S & A Budget Committee would find a way to creatively redirect funds and present a revised budget proposal at the ASWCC Senate meeting on May 20.
However, the S&A Budget was not on the May 20 meeting agenda. When the topic of the budget and any potential changes was brought up during the meeting by Rob Pedicone, Director for Athletics and Recreation, the ASWCC Executive Vice-President replied that the budget had been approved the previous week with no changes. This seemed to be a surprise to Pedicone as well as to most of the members of the gallery.
More Questions than Answers
What do the current bylaws say about budget and senate meetings being conducted without knowledge of the general campus community? What happened during those meetings to discuss potential changes and to approve the budget? Was there any intent to make changes? Were the students involved in the decision making told their hands were tied and no changes could be made?
Why did the Office of Student Life and Development get almost every funding request granted at 100% of the request, including stipends for additional members of student government that didn’t exist this year?
It begs the question: if funding is being cut to almost all student Services and Activities programs, why is a larger and more expensive ASWCC Student Government needed?
