Disclaimer: This article was written prior to a collaborative meeting between WSGA and Student Media. This is a developing story.

The Washburn Student Government Association (WSGA) has been considering cutting up to $20,000 from Student Media and $5,000 from the Campus Activities Board (CAB) next school year.

These budget cuts come in the wake of the COVID pandemic which has had a negative effect on student enrollment over the past year. These drops have caused organizations across the university to consider cutting their budgets to make up for the lost revenue, including WSGA.

WSGA has been affected by budget cuts as well, but has been reluctant to show the public their own budget records. According to WSGA budget director Toni Rainey, WSGA has always kept its budget private.

According to WSGA president Victoria Smith, the legislation to defund Student Media by $20,000 and CAB by $5,000 is to provide “money towards to help students have a normal and fun college experience.”

“Honestly we came up with $20,000… that was literally just a number,” said Victoria Smith. “It went from $5,000 to $8,000 to $7,000.”

Several Student Media members and Director of Student Media Regina Cassell were at the meeting with hopes that one of the senators would yield them time to speak on the issue.

“I realized two things at the meeting,” said Cassell. “One is that these two organizations really do not understand how the other one works, and that is something I hope will change after this meeting. The second thing that stood out to me is how challenging it is for students to understand how big budgets work, and I think a big part of that is the lack of transparency.”

This announcement comes at a time when Student Media is recovering from the pandemic. The organization has aspirations to bring the Review back into print in the fall semester but the budget cuts make this goal nearly impossible to achieve.

“$20,000 is a lot for us, that’s 20% [of the budget],” said Anna-Marie Lauppe, Editor-in-Chief of the KAW Yearbook.

The bill that WSGA is currently discussing that will cut funds to CAB and Student Media is called, SB 20-21 #97. The bill states that the student activity fee has not been reviewed in ten years and that WSGA has the right to determine how much each of the organizations will receive from the Student Activity Fee Funds each year.

Section One of the bill states that, “The Washburn Student Government Association shall reduce the amount of money given to the Student Mass Media by $10,000 each semester, with a grand total of $20,000 for the first academic year, with the stipulation that each administration will review the allocation amounts each year after, determining if there is need for more cuts.”

Section Two states that, “The Washburn Student Government Association shall reduce the amount of money given to the CAB (Campus Activities Board) by $2,500 each semester, with a grand total of $5,000 for the first academic year, with the stipulation that each administration will review the allocation amounts each year after, determining if there is need for more cuts.”

The bill will affect all three branches of Student Media: The KAW Yearbook, BodMag and the Washburn Review. Meanwhile CAB, which provides many free activities for all Washburn students, faculty, alumni and others will face a stricter budget next semester.

Since it has been tabled, the bill will be brought up each week labeled as “Old Business” until it is voted on or tabled indefinitely, according to President Smith.

“We are really trying our hardest to resolve this,” said Smith. “This is an ongoing process we are trying to fix and handle.”

The budget cuts for both organizations will affect a variety of activities on campus, not to mention impacting the possibility of the Review going back into print or the Yearbook being created next year.

Harrison Dollar, a former member of WSGA and presidential candidate, also appeared at the meeting in support of Student Media.

“WSGA’s budget is extremely secretive,” said Dollar. “In philosophy, we should be able to look at WSGA’s budget and also have a transparent budget process that all students should be able to look at. I did get my hands on the budget somehow, not through budget director Rainey, but I did find out that $18,000 is allocated to our internal budget. $4,000 to daily office expenses. I feel like this is an irresponsible way to spend money. It is not transparent.”

This ongoing issue has been a worrisome one for Student Media staff. Losing $20,000 from their overall budget would be the equivalent of printing the yearbook twice or paying their student employees for the entire year.

No students from CAB were available for comment as all of them will be graduating this semester with new students taking their place in the fall.

The issue is expected to come up again at WSGA’s next meeting on Wednesday, April 7 at 6:30 pm in Henderson, room 100.

UPDATE:

Student Media and WSGA met today at 1:15 pm and discussed the legislation surrounding their budget. Both sides were able to come to an agreement on a 3% cut from the Student Media budget which will be talked about further in the meeting tonight at 6:30 pm.

Edited by: Anna-Marie Lauppe