Volume 92/Issue 15
February 18h, 2019
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Rhode Island College’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1928
New Unity Center Director lays out goals at first Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion meeting of the semester Tim Caplan News Editor The Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) welcomed a new member last Friday to replace the recently retired former Unity Center Director Antoinette Gomes. The semester’s first meeting of the DDI occured on Feb. 15 in the Faculty Center South Dining Room. The DDI is a committee made up of RIC faculty, staff and graduate students, co-chaired by Disability Services Center Director Keri Rossi-D’entremont
and Associate Professor of Social Work Stefan Battle. The Unity Center Director has historically held a standing executive board position, which was taken up by new Unity Center Director Pegah Rahmanian. The meeting started with an introduction of Rahmanian, who hails from Oakland, CA, and whose most recent job was at a non-profit youth action group in Providence. “I feel fortunate to build off what Antoinette Gomes created” Rahmanian claimed “I’m looking forward to being a part of DDI, and hav-
Pictured is Pegah Rahmanian; Photo courtesy of Thomas Crudale ing a seat at the table with such incredible minds.” Rahmanian followed with a layout of some of her goals for the next eight
to twelve months concern- as a whole. The second ing the Unity Center after goal is to diversify the her first three weeks of ob- stories of the different servation. The first was to See “Diversity and define the purpose and diInclusion” Page 3 rection of the Unity Center
Major cuts to be made from student organizations’ budgets
Samantha Scetta Editor-In-Chief
Every tuition-paying individual that attends Rhode Island College is required to pay $60 as part of their tuition payment, allocated specifically towards student activities. This money supports the many student organizations that exist on campus, funding events that organizations wish to hold, conference trips taken by the clubs, as
well as funding the Student Community Government. The student activity fee money pool is allocated by members of the Finance Commission, currently consisting of seven voting student members. The sums were divvied up amongst the various campus organizations this past weekend during annual budget hearings. Recently, the student body was made aware that
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the Finance Commission is required make cuts to every single organization’s budget for 2019-2020. The total amount of money that needs to be cut from budgets is $71,802.07, or 21% from all budgets. The total amount requested by organizations is $722,950.27, and the Finance Commission has just $651,148.20 to allocate amongst the organizations. This is a $42,023.34
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drop from the funds available to organizations last year. All student organizations will be affected by this shortage of funds. The lack of money available to students is a consequence of dwindling enrollment at RIC. With less students enrolled, there isn’t as much money being paid to the student activities fee. Enrollment is prospected to increase in the next few years with programs to boost enrollment such as Northeast Neighbors, a new program that offers a decreased tuition rate to students that are residents of certain areas in New England. According to an email sent last Thursday from SCG Treasurer Janelle Gomez, this situation is a “critical financial circumstance that we have not encountered in a very long time.”
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When asked what her thoughts were on the the budget cuts, Treasurer Gomez had a positive outlook on something that some might see as a setback. “It’s sad to say that we have to do so many cuts this year, but it’s beautiful to see the sense of community here at RIC when all club and organization leaders are willing to cut some of their own budgets to let smaller clubs and orgs grow, which is heartwarming to witness. This situation also proves that the more information you give people, the more they’re inclined to compromise.” The second round of budget hearings will proceed in the upcoming few weeks after clubs receive the finance commission’s budget recommendations regarding which line items to cut funding from.
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