Thursday, May 06, 2004

What the budget hath wrought

Word on the street has it that the Heuristic Squelch's 2004-2005 budget was allocated last night/this morning at $300-$400 less than it was last year, and as usual much less than it takes for us to produce the magazine. (The rest is made up in advertising.)

Hey watch out. This is the part where I alienate people. Here goes. Smart Ass (that left-leaning political mag) was asking for an addition $800 last night to cover in increase of paper costs next year, yet they do not even attempt to solicit advertising in order to complement their funds. Their representative claimed that the 'zine was already too full of text and that there simply isn't room for ads. Uh...what? So be more selective with your articles! Narf! There's a budget crisis goin' on, Smart Ass, and you haven't reached out to enough of the campus community to go frolicing about asking for more money when you don't even try to generate your own revenue. Another representative conceded that if they do not get more money then they will be forced to seek out ad money.

One interesting aspect of the budget meeting is that Chancellor Robert "Bobby" Berdahl excused the ASUC's debt to his office, provided that at least a certain amount of that waived debt be allocated to recruitment and retention centers. Chancy-B sure loves his diversity. (For those of you unfamiliar, RRC's are given money to recruit certain groups of high school students for Cal, or more generally to encourage them to go to college. The BRRC targets African American youngsters, RAZA seeks out Hispanic kids, and so on.)

I left the meeting at 2am, long before any budget decisions were finalized, and for all I know the meeting could still be going on. With any luck the Squelch, which succeeds issue after issue to please students regardless of their gender, ethnicity, age, major, religion, political affiliation, or stance on that whole Israel/Palestine mess, did in the end receive an equitable amount of money.

My thanks to Squelchies Kevin, Cooper, Ben, David, and especially Dan for investing their many hours into the meeting.

Massive thanks to the senators who have consistently defended the Squelch; they are in the minority, but their support makes a world of difference. Lest I further alienate anyone, I won't bother naming names. Y'all know who you are. Thanks again, all of you. I owe you all scarves.

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 9:30 AM

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