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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I DA
Possible budget bill blowback
The budget bill proposed by the ASRC could result in significant cuts to some A&S Fee-funded departments. stories are a part of a continuing series Center for Student thatThese touches on the effects certain departments will Marshall Student face as a result of the proposed budget bill that will Center Involvement cut 15 percent overall to programming. n
By Maria Ranoni N E W S
E D I T O R
Among the ubiquitous departmental budgets cuts that were proposed in the Activity and Service Fee Recommendation Committee (ASRC) annual budget bill stands the Center for Student Involvement (CSI), the department with the largest slash in funds. In total, CSI will lose $300,055 from its budget, the largest chunk coming from its programming budget specifically. CSI is responsible for putting on events such as University Lecture Series (ULS), Bulls Nite Out, Homecoming, USF Week and Bullstock. Aladdin Hiba, chair of ASRC, said CSI was cut so much due to its large budget and a failure to appropriately spend their budgets in the past. “The narrative that departments could do more with the budgets that they have has been a narrative that’s been around a little bit in ASRC,” Hiba said. “CSI has been kind of the poster child of the narrative. CSI’s programming budget, compared to the other departments, is tremendously enormous.” According to Hiba, CSI’s total budget went from
By Jesse Stokes $2,080,782 in 2017-18 to M A N A G I N G E D I T O R $1,780727 in 2018-19, which is a cut of 14.42 percent. In light of an Its programming budget Activity and Service specifically went from Fee Recommendation $1,238,728 in 2017-18 to Committee (ASRC) $955,773, which is a 23.17 annual budget bill percent cut. already passed by While Hiba and Monica the Senate, many of Miranda, director of CSI, the Student Affairs agree on the total amount departments, such as the CSI is being cut, they Marshall Student Center disagree on the percentage. (MSC) are currently “CSI had an initial cut left to rearrange their during the first round of department spending. general budget review and As the bill awaits decision making and that, approval from Student plus this secondary cut, Body President Moneer is a total of 26 percent,” Kheireddine and Miranda said. USF Vice President The programming of Student Affairs and budget of CSI is what Student Success Paul allows the department Dosal, such departments to host the events that are left working to see Miranda said are indicative what can be done next. of the college experience In the proposed bill, at USF. the overall percentage “The staff team will have cut to the MSC would to huddle up to see which equate to approximately programs that it is going four percent, however, to impact,” Miranda said. specific portions of their “That will be anything budget — student payroll from homecoming to Patio and contractual service, Tuesday, Movies on the which is responsible Lawn, USF Week, Mr. and for programming Miss. USF (and) summer put on by the MSC programs. It is about us — will receive a more needing to come together significant reduction. as a staff and figure what “The total budget is going to be best for the that we requested … was students.” Last Tuesday, Senate passed the Activity and Service One of CSI’s most Recommendation Committee’s annual budget bill that included $2,976,473, and we are slated to receive 2,871,982, popular programs, ULS across the board cuts to departments. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI which is approximately n See CSI on PAGE 3 GUZMAN four percent less when
you look at all four lines that we requested,” Chemburkar said. “So, it was a 15 percent for programming that was cut and 15 percent for student payroll… which is a total of a four percent reduction across our whole budget.” According to Chemburkar, $122,000 was requested from Activity and Service Fee allocations for contractual services, and the MSC received $104,125 of their requested dollars. On the same token, $535,675 was requested for student payroll dollars and $454,474 of that request was allocated. What this means for operations of the MSC, according to Chemburkar, would be a loss of both operation hours and hours available for student employees. “What we would have to do is try and find where in the building we could eliminate 27 student employment hours per day, so that would be through an elimination of services such as Bull Market or Student Center programming or hours of operations,” Chemburkar said. “We
n See MSC on PAGE 3
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
CSI
Continued from PAGE 1
may have to face some cutbacks due to the new budget, according to Miranda. “There will have to be less speakers because we will not be able to fund the speakers … Those cuts were specifically a $60,000 cut from ULS’s budget,” Miranda said. Miranda said the senators’ decision to cut CSI so heavily may be due to a lack of understanding on the impact of some of their programs like ULS. “What is interesting is at the last ULS I stumbled upon two members of ASRC in the atrium and they asked, ‘What is going on here?’” Miranda said. “The lines were all over the atrium. And, I said, ‘Well, this is ULS,’ and their response to me was, ‘Oh, this is ULS?’ “So, I do not know whether there is a clear understanding of the programs and events; I do not know how often they (senators) are attending these events. Our events are not going to always be filled to capacity every weekend, but that does not mean that they
are any less important to the students that do attend.” Miranda said she is also concerned about the effects these cuts will have on student employment at CSI. According to Hiba, student payroll went from $192,841 in 2017-18 to $169,209 in 2018-19. It might be necessary to cut student employee positions and/ or student hours, according to Miranda. “Students who have to work, working on campus is better for them,” Miranda said. “Some of our positions, we have worked with Career Services to create as internships so students are not just working, but they are also learning. That is such a critical piece of student’s success and now we may have to cut some of that.” Miranda said many of CSI’s programs like Bulls Nite Out serve many students, particularly the international student population. “I love that. I love that we can actually provide some great programming and a lot of fun to international students who are still finding their way in the area and trying to learn about where
The Marshall Student Center’s programming and student payroll budgets were cut 15 percent, according to the director Sujit Chemburkar. ORACLE PHOTO/JESSE STOKES
MSC
Continued from PAGE 1
are still fine tuning what that would look like for us and what my personal process would be is to come up with three or
four different options, hit the Marshall Center Advisory Board for their recommendations, and then go out and poll the students and say, ‘How do you think as a community we could best implement these reductions?’”
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The Center for Student Involvement hosts the popular University Lecture Series which is facing an approximate $60,000 budget cut. The last speech, given by Leslie Odom Jr., had a entry line that filled the Marshall Student Center.. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN they are supposed to be going, what they are doing, what they can get involved with,” Miranda said. “You cannot put a price on that.” While Hiba agrees that CSI has an important impact on the student experience, he said he
thinks they need to be more fiscally responsible with the funds that are allotted. “Has CSI had an impact on the student experience?” Hiba said. “Absolutely. Is it a big impact? Absolutely. Is it the most we can do with $1.2 million? Probably
not.” Miranda said CSI views things differently as it is not possible for them to put a price to the student experience. “They (SG) are putting a price to a person, we do not put a price on impact,” Miranda said.
Cutting the hours available for student payroll is something that Chemburkar wanted to avoid, as he said he has consistently used all of the funds allocated for student payroll and then some in years past. Aladdin Hiba, the ASRC chair, said having to cut student hours was not the intention of ASRC when first proposing the budget cuts, but may be necessary. “ASRC did not come into this process with the idea of, ‘Let’s cut student positions from this department,’ or ‘Let’s cut student pay,’ because ASRC … has been huge about student employment,” Hiba said. “That being said, we also have to face certain realities, and we have less money to work with. Sometimes that just means that we have to do what is best.” According to Chemburkar, the MSC currently operates most
days with 17 hours and has eight to 10 student employees on shift during this time, depending upon events and demand. In a packet put together by Danielle McDonald, the dean of students and the directors of Student Affairs Departments, operational hours for the MSC would decrease by approximately 15 hours per week. However, Hiba said these responses to the cuts would have a heavy impact on the student experience, though they appear to be questionable in their nature and not necessary. “I think that by reducing their building hours by 13 percent to accommodate a 0.36 percent reduction in their budget is extremely excessive and will not be necessary,” Hiba said. “I think if they did do it, that would give them a huge budget
surplus. That is not my opinion as a person who has reviewed the MSC’s building hour expenses, that is just (based off ) back of the envelope calculations.” Moving forward, Chemburkar said he hopes to maintain an open line of communication with his ASRC representatives to ensure that the best solution possible is reached for all of the parties involved. “I am always happy to sit down with my ASRC reps and Student Government, and review how I approach the budgeting process,” Chemburkar said. “That is why I have been an advocate to try and work with Student Government and the executive committees over the last several years to try and make sure that we have a fully functioning advisory board.”
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Baseball
USF seeks outright lead in AAC against UCF
After hitting a home run against No. 12 ECU on Saturday, first baseman Joe Genord (above) offered incendiary words to his opponent, prompting both teams to clear their benches. ORACLE PHOTO/THOMAS PRETTYMAN By Sam Newlon A S S T .
S P O R T S
E D I T O R
The Bulls showed a competitive spark against ECU last weekend and they will look to keep that momentum in the latest installment of the War on I-4. After a heated conference series against No. 12 East Carolina (27-9, 5-4), USF looks for a chance to take outright lead of the American when it hosts rival UCF on Friday. Last weekend, USF’s Joe Genord exchanged words with ECU pitcher Gavin Williams before stepping into the batter’s box. The hard-throwing freshman delivered a pitch and Genord delivered right back. The ball was launched over the rightcenter field wall. Instead of simply starting his trot around the bases, Genord watched the ball fly over the fence with an ensuing bat flip. When he finally got to second base, he and ECU infielders exchanged more words which prompted players and coaches to clear both benches. There were no fists thrown and both teams
were issued a warning. “I wouldn’t let my players act like that, but I’m not the head coach for South Florida,” ECU coach Cliff Godwin told the Daily Reflector on Saturday. “They do what they want to do and we do what we want to do, but I wouldn’t let my players act like that.” Bulls head coach Billy Mohl complimented his team over the weekend, praising the energy they brought. “I’m really proud of our guys this weekend and how they responded after Friday’s loss,” Mohl said Sunday. “They did a great job of not letting the outside noise take away from the ultimate goal of winning a series. They were determined and brought real energy all weekend. It was a total team effort.” USF (24-13, 7-5) seeks to keep that energy Mohl described going into the weekend series against in-state rival UCF (25-12, 6-6). Not only do the Bulls have an opportunity to lay claim to the War on I-4 trophy, but they could take sole ownership of first place in the conference.
The Bulls sit atop the American alongside Houston (2214, 7-5) and Cincinnati (17-17, 7-5). USF could pull away from the three-way tie with a successful weekend against UCF. The Knights won their series last weekend against Cincinnati and are coming off a victory against Bethune-Cookman on Wednesday. Earlier in the season, UCF swept No. 1 Florida with two wins. “We talked a lot this week about how we’ve passed the midpoint of the season,” UCF coach Greg Lovelady said after their weekend against Cincinnati. “The guys have done a lot of good things, we’ve done some not good things, we’ve grown up a lot … We’ve got to utilize all these things we’ve learned now.” UCF outfielder Tyler Osik was named the American Athletic Player of the Week on Monday. He carried the Knights with 13 RBI over four games and is ranked fifth in the nation with 45. The Knights also have a pitching staff that will challenge the Bulls. Chris Williams threw eight innings allowing just three
hits and racked up six strikeouts. Another pitcher, Cre Finfrock, threw five hitless innings against Miami last week. UCF often calls upon closer Bryce Tucker from the bullpen. In his last five appearances, Tucker has allowed just two hits and has recorded eight strikeouts. The Bulls have their own weapons though. Peter Strzelecki pitched a complete game and held East Carolina to just one run in the Bulls’ 13-1 win over the Pirates. On offense, David Vilar was named to the AAC weekly honor roll after batting .467 over the last four games. Duke Stunkel Jr. helped lead the Bulls to victory Tuesday against the University of North Florida (18-19, 4-5 ASUN) with three hits and two RBI. On paper, the two teams have almost identical records. The Bulls are 19-7 at home while the Knights are 6-6 while traveling. In a rivalry series, though, anything can happen. First pitch for the most recent contest of the War on I-4 is set for 7 p.m. at USF Baseball Stadium.
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OPINION
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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Fighting bombs with bombs: not an effective measure
By Paige Wisniewski S T A F F
W R I T E R
In response to U.S. led military airstrikes on chemical weapon facilities in Syria on April 13, President Donald Trump tweeted, “Mission accomplished!” the following day. The “mission” was executed by the U.S., the U.K. and France as a reaction to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his citizens in Douma on April 7. CNN reports that Assad’s attack left 75 dead and another 500 injured. As humanitarian as the U.S. government would like to appear to be, this specific strike seems less to do with international compassion and more as a symbolic effort to deter foreign chemical weapon use. Fighting bombs with bombs is not an effective measure to controlling the use or stockpiling of chemical weapons. Historically, this exact action proves the endeavor is futile. Assad also carried out a chemical weapon attack against civilians last year on April 4, 2017. The U.S. responded with a missile attack on a Syrian airbase two days later. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the U.S. has been bombing Pakistan with drones since 2004 to address terrorism, yet it has not proven to eliminate it. Somalia had been bombed in November 2017 for the same reason and with similar results. Islamist militants continue to execute deadly attacks on Somali civilians. What “mission” is the U.S. accomplishing by continuing to
strike a foreign regime that clearly has not been discouraged from the mass destruction of its own population? The first retaliated effort in 2017 proved to be ineffective in preventing or eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons, so why would three sectors of the international community agree to revive this strategy? ABC News Center reports that British lawmakers have criticized the United Kingdom for acting without Parliament’s approval. Prime Minister Theresa May defended the strikes by claiming, “We have not done this because President Trump asked us to do so. We have done it because we believe it was the right thing to do.” It does not seem likely that the U.K. and France would have carried out the airstrikes without the U.S. as a coordinated partner. This was a U.S. led operation. If May’s assertion is that these attacks were “the right thing to do,” then was the mission truly accomplished? In terms of completion, the U.S. can say it has accomplished the attack. However, the limited strike may not do much to limit the amount of chemical weapons Syria can manufacture. The Pentagon reports that the three targets that were hit sustained significant damage. The facility located in Homs was reported to be completely destroyed. Despite the blow to these facilities, other chemical weapons sites could still exist. Assad’s ability to acquire the chemical agents needed for the construction of
these weapons has not been fully restricted either. Military intervention still has not been proven to limit chemical weapon use. Assad’s historical record and continued availability for chemical weapons means Syrian civilians are not any safer than they were before the U.S. and its allies decided to strike. There is not any justification for completing fruitless attacks on foreign soil when civilians are subject to the same terror they lived with before international intervention. To accomplish a mission based on “doing the right thing,” intervening powers must account for the effectiveness of the results, rather than the success of the execution. “The right thing to do” would be to ensure Syrian civilians are safe and protected. The lack of foresight or strategy on the U.S., U.K. and France’s coordinated effort paints a picture that this attack was not humanitarian after all. This conflict does not have a military solution. Force should be a last resort if international actors are keen on intervening in states where humanitarian crises are occurring. The U.S.’ continued use of symbolic, rather than effective, tactics to address foreign conflict proves it is more concerned with establishing power than implementing a diplomatic solution.
Paige Wisniewski is a junior majoring in interdisciplinary social sciences.
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What you said Multimdedia editor Chaveli Guzman asked students what they are doing to prepare for finals.
“I am putting in a lot of hours and sleeping a lot of hours. ” — Fernando Zamora, a junior majoring in civil engineering.
“I’ve been going to the library at night and studying a little bit every day. ” — Courtney Richard, a junior majoring in health sciences.
“I’m actually trying to manage my time wisely and split up all my classes.” — Catelyn Richard, a junior majoring in interdisciplinary natural sciences. “I’m just going to pray because my classes are a bit too hard.” — Joshua Walker-Chery a junior majoring in biomedical sciences.
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CROSSWORD
Sports
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
RUNDOWN USF loses another lineman
USF lost its second offensive lineman in as many weeks after junior Grant Polk left the team, his father told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday. Polk’s first concussion came in the first practice after last season’s opener against San Jose State, with his second coming last month during Grant Polk SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/ spring GOUSFBULLS practice. The departure comes less than two weeks after nowformer USF offensive lineman Brooks Larkin announced his separation from the team due to, among other reasons, concerns about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease commonly associated with repeated blows to the head. Symptoms of CTE include depression, cognitive impairment and suicidal behavior. Dementia-like symptoms are also commonly associated with CTE. While there is no definitive link between concussions and CTE, the disease has been found in a number of deceased football players, including former NFL greats Junior Seau and Dave Duerson.
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Football
Hypothetical student fee to fund on-campus stadium could also fund new parking garage
By Josh Fiallo S P O R T S
E D I T O R
A hypothetical student fee of $30-80 a semester to help finance an on-campus stadium could also fund a new parking garage on campus, Student Government (SG) Sen. Yousef Afifi told The Oracle on Wednesday. The potential fee was originally mentioned publicly by Student Body President Moneer Kheireddine at his State of the Student Body Address on March 28, with Kheireddine only mentioning the possible fee being used to fund a stadium. Afifi, however, confirmed that the proposed fee, if passed through a student vote, would also help fund a new parking garage to help with parking on game day and for every-day use. Construction for the parking garage would most likely break ground at the same time as the stadium, Afifi said, but would take less time to construct. “It’s not just paying more money to get a stadium on campus,” Afifi said. “It’s paying a relatively miniscule amount in terms to the ratio to what you (students) are already paying, to contribute to this grand project that has the potential to incur so many benefits onto the university and its students.” Afifi compared the proposed fee to the A&S fee. Currently, students pay $7 per semester and $12.08 per credit hour in A&S. He said both contribute “to the student experience.” He also emphasized that the proposed student fee to fund an
on-campus stadium and parking garage is one of many options to fund a stadium. Just as there is no set location to construct a stadium on campus, there is also not a specific location planned to build a parking garage, Afifi said. Afifi emphasized that all discussions for the fee are hypothetical and still in its early stages. No proposal has been brought to the Senate floor and there hasn’t been an official announcement of when it will. Afifi, who said the original idea for the student fee was his, believes if SG doesn’t act quickly to enable a fee to help fund an on-campus stadium, it may miss its chance. “If our football team has a subpar season the next season or the year after and we go back to our old ways, the talk about constructing a stadium is going to all but vanish,” Afifi said. “If we don’t have a stadium and we start becoming bad again, it kind of depletes the argument we could make to have one constructed.” Afifi also said, however, he will not push a fee if a majority of the student body is against it. “I’m open to all suggestions,” Afifi said. “I’m also open to all ideas that further the initiative. I think you help alleviate parking severely during the times when traffic is crazy on campus and you also get a football stadium. That has so many benefits to the student experience and student body. It’s a package deal.”
The construction of a new parking garage is currently being discussed in connection to building an on-campus stadium. One of the proposed funding methods is creating a new student fee. ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ JACKIE BENITEZ