During Monday night’s Senate meeting, President Nick Pastan ’09 and Treasurer Peter Tang ’10 put forth a proposal for the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) to donate $100,000 to the College. They explained that Amherst, which, like other academic institutions that have been hit hard by the present economic crisis, needs the full support of the AAS during this difficult time. A number of campus-wide programs have already been eliminated or reduced, departmental budgets have been cut by up to 10 percent, and Valentine Dining Hall has had to make changes in the nature and frequency of the food it serves.
“We’re not saving the College by donating $100,000,” said Pastan. “Rather, by supplementing College money with AAS money, we’re helping make sure that we don’t lose things fundamental to the student experience at Amherst. Our goal is to utilize our surplus to support student programming that will be cut immediately as a result of the financial crisis and to help the College preserve financial aid, which affects all of us as students and is core to our values and Amherst’s mission.”
Tang has determined that the AAS, at this time, is very strong financially and that it is thus in a good position to make such a donation to the College. The AAS treasury is not tied to the College’s endowment and is not invested but comes from the student activities fee paid with tuition. Senator Victor Zhu ’11 further attributes the AAS’s strong financial position to the fact that fewer funding requests have come through the Senate than in previous semesters and to the results of the Spring Concert funding vote last semester, by which students decided to allocate $10,000 of the AAS’s funds to the event, as opposed to the possible maximum of $40,000.
The proposed $100,000 donation itself is comprised of two separate components. $30,000 will be taken from the Senate discretionary fund and placed into a new Supplemental Student Programming Fund. “[This] special Senate-created fund [would] ensure the continuation of student needs and/or programs that would ordinarily be sponsored by the Amherst College administration,” stated the proposal. “The goal of the Fund is mainly to subsidize and support the continuation of programs that cannot be fully supported by the Administration.” Tang provided TYPO and Community Tea as examples of programs which may be saved by the Fund. He and Pastan will sit down with Dean of Students Ben Lieber later this week in order to review exactly which programs have been reduced or eliminated by the College. This will help the AAS attain a better understanding of which specific programs will need the support of the Fund.
The Supplemental Student Programming Fund is not meant to be permanent. Rather, it will exist only for a period of time as determined by the Senate. “Although necessary in the short term, if the Fund should have a positive balance after the Spring 2009 semester, the Fund will continue into the subsequent semesters until it is exhausted,” noted the proposal. “After the Fund is exhausted, its continuation will be re-assessed by the Senate based on the future needs of the College and the financial position of the Senate.”
This part of the proposal also contains a clause “in anticipation of the prospect of numerous requests being filed as a result of the Administration-mandated budget cuts.” This clause will require that each proposal for a share of the Fund that comes before the Senate must be approved by more than a simple majority. Pastan and Tang also said that the Fund will be administered by the AAS Budget Committee and that it will be possible for students to make requests directly to the AAS through a special online form.
“This is our community. It is distressed and we should help,” remarked one Senator, embodying the views of many of the other Senators present at the meeting. While Zhu also expressed enthusiasm for this part of the proposal, he did have some concerns. “The financial downturn could last for several years,” he said. “Even though we have a discretionary budget surplus this year, we may not have a surplus next year. I agree with saving these programs when we are able to; however, the school cannot forget that they ultimately have the responsibility to fund these programs. One-time expenditures, such as buying travel mugs for every student to cope with the loss of ecotainers in Val, are perfectly fine, but I would caution the Senate in tying itself to indefinite programs like TYPO.”
The remaining $70,000 of the proposed $100,000 donation will be given to the College’s financial aid program through the Annual Fund. This money will come from the AAS treasury reserves. “The purpose of this donation is to demonstrate that financial aid is a core value of the student body and that we, as a student body, support the students who are going here,” said Pastan. This donation is intended to be a symbolic gesture in order to make it known that financial aid is a priority of the student body and that it is integral to the principles of each and every student at Amherst as well as the College itself.
“Although $70,000 is not enough to make an extremely significant difference in financial aid, I think that it is necessary that we make this donation as a way of showing the students’ eagerness to help in the current financial slump,” said Senator Romen Borsellino ’12. “The Administration has taken a great stance on keeping financial aid a priority despite the economy, and it is important that we, as a student body, show our support.”
Similarly, while Zhu notes that the donation is “merely a drop in a bucket of water,” he feels that if the symbolism behind it demonstrates what financial aid means to students at Amherst; “[making the donation] would be the right course of action.” However, he also believes that because the $70,000 donation is only a symbolic gesture, the actual amount of the donation does not matter. “I propose reducing the financial aid donation to $50,000 and increasing the Program Fund from $30,000 to $50,000,” he said. “Such a proposal would still have the symbolic effect toward financial aid while also giving the AAS more ways that it can actually help improve student life by saving programs.” The Senate plans to debate further and vote on the proposal Feb. 9 during its weekly open meeting at 8:30 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room.