Last Thursday, Associated Students and San Diego State administration held an open presentation regarding the 2012-2013 university budget and fiscal outlook. The event was prompted after the unofficial campus organization Reclaim SDSU made several requests for an open community forum.
Although the event was moderated by A.S., SDSU President Elliot Hirshman spoke during the first half of the presentation and then answered the majority of students’ questions and comments.
“We’re at a pretty pivotal point in our university’s history. On the one hand, we’ve enjoyed great success” Hirshman said. “On the other hand, and I think this is the challenge that brings us together, the state of California is facing very significant challenges.”
During the presentation, Hirshman addressed the California State University system’s recent budget constraints and how they affect SDSU. President Hirshman did not comment on the university budget without speaking first of the controversy surrounding his salary and private donations to SDSU.
“The point that I would share to you for your consideration is that people don’t generally set or justify their own salaries. No matter how moral a person I believe myself to be, or you might believe yourself to be, no matter how high minded, there’s an inherent conflict of interest in setting and justifying your own salary,” Hirshman said.
According to Hirshman, university presidents do not control their salaries because the CSU board sets them. However, he acknowledged he would respect any official changes to policy regarding his salary.
Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs Sally Roush presented facts and figures behind the university’s budget and fiscal outlook.
“For next fiscal year, we estimate that the university’s operating fund budget, which is the budget that supports instruction, and all of those things that support instruction, will be about $338 million,” Roush said.
Roush highlighted a significant amount of financial aid is available from university resources as well as federal and state sources. As the budget has been constantly cut throughout past years, Roush said the number one budget priority is ensuring funding for classes students need to graduate.
Once Roush finished her brief breakdown of fiscal facts and figures, an open forum began and Hirshman opened the floor for students to ask questions.
One of the issues consistently brought up by students was their opinion that there is a lack of democracy on campus. A student took the comment further by stating there is also a severe lack of communication between students, A.S., the senate and the administration.
Another student requested A.S. and the senate reach out to all students through email, to which members of the administration responded that students should also reciprocate their wish by being more involved on campus.
Many students also voiced concerns about the lack of representation for students of color.
“I do not need the president to donate money. What I need is for the president to represent me as a poor student of color,” one student said.
Hirshman responded to these comments with statistics about the large representation of colored students in the incoming freshmen and transfer classes. He also assured that the Cross-Cultural Center would have a more prominent presence on campus by next fall.
“When that Student Union gets finished and built, the Cross-Cultural Center will be in there. I guarantee it 100 percent,” Hirshman said.
As the forum progressed, student remarks and questions became increasingly impassioned to the point where a communications professor asked students to reconsider attacking the administration. Toward the end of the forum, Hirshman and other members of the administration, including said communications professor, expressed they also share many of the students’ same concerns.
“There’s a real issue we can all agree on, which is for further cuts we need to be as active as possible in opposing them,” Hirshman said.
Following up with Reclaim SDSU after the presentation, the group released a statement saying although the forum was an important initiative regarding communication between students and the administration, they still felt unsatisfied with the event.
“Students, workers and their families will no longer allow an insular elite to operate public institutions as their pet projects for personal enrichment. We will not fatalistically accept a future of greater privatization and degradation of our school,” Reclaim SDSU said.
