BUDGET CRUNCH

By Rosemary Peters, Editor-in-Chief -- peters12@up.edu

Students hoping to earn a little extra cash on campus next fall will have a tougher time as the University of Portland slashes its student employment expense budget by 20 percent for the 2012-2013 academic year.    

The cut, which will shake out to a decrease of about $600,000 from the over $3,000,000 budget, will mean fewer students working on campus, fewer hours of work for student workers or a combination of the two.

It will also mean a cutback in services provided by departments across campus.

"I thought someone was joking with me at first because it is such a big cut," Director of Residence Life Mike Walsh said. "I went from 'Oh very funny' to 'Oh, this is serious, I better figure it out.'"

A steep increase in the student employment expense budget over the last few years is the main factor contributing to Vice President of Financial Affairs Alan Timmins' decision to cut the budget.

"Over the past three years, the student employment expense has gone up by 35 percent," Timmins said. "What hasn't gone up by 35 percent is the endowment or tuition."

According to Timmins, this year the University was also negatively affected by a cutback in federal work-study funds, a form of financial aid awarded based on need.

According to Timmins, federal work-study decreased by 30 percent and Timmins expects work-study dollars to decrease again next school year.

 A decrease in work-study dollars means an increase in the checks written out of the University's pocketbook to student workers. Students who are not eligible for work-study or who earn their entire work-study budget before the end of the year earn their wages through the student employment expense budget, known as "Campus Cash." Campus Cash is paid for through tuition, gifts and contributions from donors, endowment earnings and the federal government.

"The percent of dollars from the federal government was less that I imagined," Director of Student Activities Jeromy Koffler said. "The higher proportion of dollars is coming from the University."

Timmins announced the 20 percent cut in the student employment budget nearly a month ago in a meeting of the directors of the various divisions at UP.

"Throughout the University, as a normal part of the budget process, funds are reallocated to ensure that the University remains true to its mission, and runs the operations of the University in a fiscally responsible manner," Timmins said in an email.

Timmins is allowing each division to decide precisely which jobs and work hours to cut to reduce their respective student employment budgets by 20 percent, a task each division is still trying to decide how to implement.

 "Each division is probably going to handle it differently," Koffler said.

Koffler's department, Student Activities, falls under the umbrella of the Student Affairs Division along with other departments such as Public Safety, Career Services and the Health Center. Instead of having each department cut 20 percent of its Campus Cash budget across the board, the Student Affairs division is compiling a list of all the jobs in the division and making surgical cuts based on the necessity of those jobs. This means that some departments in Student Affairs may take deeper cuts than others.

"In our area, I don't think we are overfunding jobs," Koffler said of Student Activities. "Tough choices will have to be made."

Timmins is encouraging managers across campus to be more conscientious about the work their student workers are doing so as to make informed decisions about how to best cut their budget.

"No reason for (student workers) to sit around doing nothing if there is nothing to do," Timmins said. "We can fine tune and manage the hours just by paying attention."

Many divisions are still trying to figure out how they want to handle the budget cut.

"Might mean less students," Physical Plant Director André Hutchinson said of his department. "Might mean the same amount of students working less hours."

Currently, there are more than 1,500 students paid each month through the payroll system. Hutchinson estimates around 20 to 30 of this total are students who work for Physical Plant.

For Residence Life, one of the biggest employers of students, this budget cut will mean a decrease of approximately $55,000.

"We employ so many students, but it also means we can absorb more," Walsh said. "But smaller groups are going to start losing programs."

Director of Printing and Mailing Services Mary Scroggins is concerned this cut is going to hurt her department.

"There are 16 students (in the mail center) - without them the mail center would run a lot differently," Scroggins said. "They're very, very, very, very valuable."

According to Scroggins, the mail center relies heavily on students' help to get the campus mail delivered, especially since the department only has three staff members. Student employees in the mail center are constantly delivering mail to various buildings on campus, Monday through Saturday.

"Sometimes we don't get to delivering to dorms until about five o'clock," Scroggins said.

The Campus Cash budget slash will not only affect the students working in the mail center according to Scroggins, but also students, faculty and staff who are sending and receiving mail, as she expects more time to pass between when packages are sent out and received.

"Everyone is going to have to rethink how we do things," Scroggins said. "Everyone is going to have to plan ahead a little bit more."

There are some students who will not lose hours or their jobs due to the budget cut. Student workers at Bon Appétit are paid by Bon Appétit itself since it is an independent contractor, and therefore this budget cut will leave them unscathed.

Resident assistants will also be excluded from any budget cuts, as they are not paid out of Campus Cash. ASUP will also be exempt from the process since their revenue comes from the student government fee.

Koffler acknowledges the cut will be hard on students.

"Students will have to find other ways to make ends meet," Koffler said.

Timmins concedes this will be a difficult pill for students to swallow.

"Change is never comfortable," Timmins said.

He encourages students to look into finding work off campus and suggests that students start with Career Services when looking for off-campus jobs.

"Student employment was never meant to be the first line of financial aid for students," Timmins said.

However, finding off-campus jobs may prove difficult for UP students, as Oregon's state unemployment is 8.8 percent, slightly higher than the national unemployment rate of 8.3 percent , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate is historically made of up a higher proportion of college-aged students, according to the Bureau.

Junior Dominic Ferrari works 10 hours a week at the University in order to earn money for food and other necessities. He is upset by the University's decision.

"It's not really fair, especially since there's definitely a lot of waste going on in the school," Ferrari said.

Senior Adam Harnden is also upset about the cut. He has worked several campus jobs during his time at UP, ranging from two to 15 hours per week. He is worried about how the cut will affect summer jobs.

However, Harnden believes students will make it through the budget cut.

"We will persevere," he said.