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Issue 4 | February 14, 2013 | Whitman news since 1896
ASWC debates student fee by LACHLAN JOHNSON Staff Reporter
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he ASWC senate voted on Sunday, Feb. 10 to raise the ASWC student fee an additional $14 for the academic year of 2013-14. The fee, now $350 per student, was raised to adjust for inflation and an expected decrease in student body size, as well as to provide more funding for club sports and allow for contributions to the Lifecycle Fund and ASWC endowment. “When we’re asking the college to be very cognizant about the tuition increases they make every single year, that by nature happen yearly, we need to be cognizant of the increases that we make. However, I’ve always been of the opinion that [due to] our [past] increases you see a huge, very visible return in terms of student life,” said ASWC President junior Kayvon Behroozian. Behroozian noted that campus institutions like the organic garden, The Pioneer, KWCW and WEB are partially or entirely funded by students’ contributions to the Associated Student of Whitman College. “This relatively small fee [in comparison to tuition] has very tangible results in terms of your student experience on campus,” he said. The senate meeting began with the ASWC finance committee proposing to raise the fee to $350, a number they had settled on after a three-and-a-halfhour meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 6. Their recommendation was eventually passed by the senate, though several senators attempted to amend the resolution to raise the
fee an additional $2 to $352/year. “If you actually added [the goals for funding] up, it would [require a fee of] $356, but we’re going to be making some hard cuts in finance committee to deal with that,” said ASWC Finance Committee Chair senior Sam Sadeghi. Specific cuts were not mentioned during the senate, and will be discussed during budgeting later in the year. However, possible suggestions for tightening the budget were mentioned. The ASWC green fund, which holds $1,000 of funding for green initiatives, could be combined with the contingency fund to allow flexibility in spending. This year, no requests concerning the green fund have been made, and the money has not been utilized. Should the fund be eliminated, requests concerning sustainability would still be financed through the contingency fund. Another suggestion concerning efficiency was to encourage WEB to be more efficient with its funding, and ensure that only events that are well-attended and appreciated by the student body take place. Dividing the student travel and development fund into two separate funds, one for development on campus and one for travel, could also help ASWC save money. Sophomore senator Tatiana Kaehler suggested giving the finance committee greater control over club budgets, so that funds are allocated as they are needed rather than granted as a lump sum at the start of each year. “I think we need less of a budget because that will motivate us to be more efficient in our spending. It’s ridiculous [that]
Legacies strike their own paths by SERENA RUNYAN Staff Reporter
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Photos by McCormick
some of the inefficient spending happens; I think our money has been well spent this year, but I’d like to see any new club initiative come through [the] contingency [fund rather] than them getting it in the budget,” said Kaehler. “I’d like to approve everything a club does for the first time as something that’s beneficial to the campus, rather than them having a lot of freedom to go around doing things and not being successful.” Club Director senior Nick Chow raised concerns about the need for additional contributions to the Lifecycle fund, which maintains equipment and technology used by ASWC and the campus media organizations,
see LEGACY, page 6
the ASWC endowment. According to Chow, these funds have been neglected for the last three years. The finance committee aims to contribute $10,000$15,000 to the Lifecycle fund and $5,000-$10,000 to the endowment, but Chow felt this was not sufficient, as an unexpected emergency could lead ASWC to fall back on the already-stressed funds. Senior senator Fernando Medina encouraged raising the fee in order to provide scholarships for ASWC senators so that financially pressed students could run for office. Firstyear senator Allison Kelly spoke in favor of raising the fee in order to provide ample funding for
clubs and activities on campus. The amendment to raise the fee to $352 failed, with five senators voting to raise the fee and ten voting against. Three senators were absent, and counted as abstaining. The senate then voted on the finance committee’s original proposal, which passed with 14 voting in favor and one against. “I thought [the fee] should be raised more to be allocated to developing student life, clubs and conferences,” said Kelly, who voted against the final proposal. “I respect everything the finance committee does, they have a very hard job, and [I think] that the number they did come to is very reasonable.”
Student trustee plan abandoned Trustees approve budget, renovations in February meeting by RACHEL ALEXANDER Editor-in-Chief
name often comes with a meaning devoid of relevance to its owner. These titles— more specifically last names—are passed to family members and carry with them any meaning that other relatives have given them. Whitman has its own collection of significant, recognizable names. Ethan Bergeson, a current senior, overlapped with his older brother Seth when he entered Whitman in his first year. Bergeson got a lot of older-brother references when he came here because of his shared last name, and there are plenty of reasons why people would know of Seth. He was an RA, on ASWC, the senior student speaker and the recipient of the prestigious Watson Fellowship and Fulbright Scholarship. “Senior year people started hearing about him because he got a Watson,” said Bergeson. “He was really big in the grants department.” Bergeson used his Watson grant to travel and study the games children play in different areas of the world, specifically countries that had experienced either civil wars or genocide. Needless to say, in Bergeson’s first year, most people knew who he was, he said. Students, faculty and administration alike knew of his brother, and “mostly his teachers” would mention it. With a notable last name comes preconceived ideas and expectations.
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hitman’s Board of Trustees approved the college’s proposed budget during their meeting last week, as well as plans for renovating Baker Faculty Center, Memorial and the outdoor tennis courts. Representatives from ASWC also met with members of the Board of Trustees to discuss the possibility of having a student representative on the Board. After these meetings, ASWC President Kayvon Behroozian said ASWC will no longer be pursuing a student representative on the Board. Instead, his administration will look for other ways to increase student input and participation in Governing Board decisions. Behroozian said the decision was made after coming to a better understanding of the differences between Whitman’s Board of Trustees and the boards of peer institutions. In particular, Whitman’s board has fewer trustees than many other colleges, and does not have a representative board, meaning that there are no parent trustees, faculty trustees, recent alumni trustees or other trustees who are appointed to represent specific groups. “Having a student representative on the board is not consistent with the structure of the board,” said Behroozian. Aside from these demographic differences, Behroozian said that further conversation with several Board members clarified the fact that most important decisions made
by Trustees occur in committees, many of which have student representatives. For instance, the President’s Budget Advisory Committee has three ASWC-appointed student representatives, as well as the ASWC Finance Chair, though all student members are non-voting. “We’re shifting to a different way of incorporating the student voice that’s going to be more effective,” said Behroozian, though
“Having a student representative on the board is not consistent with the structure of the board.” Kayvon Behroozian ‘14 ASWC President
he was unable to disclose the specifics of ASWC’s new plan. Peter van Oppen, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, said that he believed focusing on student representation in committees made sense, and that committee chairs were generally supportive of the idea. He said the Board also discussed strategies for actively seeking student opinions more frequently. “It’s up to the trustees to make sure we’re proactively, assertively reaching out and getting student input on a regular basis,” he said. Though representation was discussed by the Trustees over the course of their time on campus, the college’s budget for the coming year was the primary focus of the meetings.
The 2013-14 tuition rate has not been released publicly yet, but van Oppen confirmed that it is the lowest increase in tuition in the past decade. Over the past ten years, Whitman’s tuition increases have ranged from a high of 7.5 percent for the 2006-07 school year to a low of four percent for the 2012-13 school year. The budget also allows for increases in faculty salary pools. In a letter to faculty sent out earlier this week, President George Bridges said the additional salary funds would be allocated based on merit, promotions and “inequities in compensation” caused by a number of factors, including comparable salaries at peer institutions. In addition to revenue from tuition, the budget has $20 million in endowment income and gifts built into it. A schedule has not been set for any of the approved building renovations. As part of the renovations, the alumni office, currently located in Boyer House, will be relocated to Baker Faculty Center. Van Oppen said a bidding process would begin later this year, and noted that a gift to the college is funding most of the cost of renovating the faculty center. In his letter to faculty, President Bridges expressed gratitude that budget requests made for the coming year minimized budget increases. “I am very optimistic about the year ahead and the promise that we will continue to serve all students exceptionally well while minimizing the financial burden that a Whitman education places on their families and friends,” he said.