Last month, The Daily Aztec hosted a debate between the two candidates running for the Associated Students Vice President of Financial Affairs for the A.S. elections. During the debate, The Daily Aztec asked a question tweeted by a member of the A.S. Finance Board regarding the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center. We asked for each candidate’s stance on the A.S. funding of the Alumni Center for the past three years. The question raised a lot of eyebrows, and with A.S. voting whether to approve its budget on Wednesday, I thought this would be an appropriate time to explain the arrangement made between San Diego State and A.S.
First of all, SDSU and A.S. are two separate business entities, which isn’t the norm at most public universities, according to Vice President of the Division of Business and Financial Affairs Sally Roush.
Roush said most student governments are under the umbrella of the university financially—and don’t have the autonomy A.S. enjoys. For this reason, A.S. and SDSU work together a great deal, despite their independence from one another.
Three years ago, the Alumni Center was built and paid for purely through alumni donations—and who could have a problem with that? However, the operation and upkeep of the building wasn’t funded by donations; SDSU planned on footing that bill. Unfortunately, the recession hit just as the Alumni Center neared completion in 2009, and SDSU realized the cost of operating such a facility would be a financial burden, placing a lot of strain on the university at a time when it was struggling to maintain student enrollment and class sizes.
It was at this time of financial constraint that caused SDSU to approach A.S. about assuming the cost of the Alumni Center’s operating expenses, which costs approximately $150,000 a year. According to Vice President of External Affairs Tom Rivera and A.S. Executive Director Christina Brown, A.S. accepted this because they wanted to help SDSU avoid cuts to student enrollment and courses. A.S. has fared relatively well during this recession, still maintaining a constant level of reserves. It even helped The Daily Aztec this year by forgiving $74,000 of debt, which included human resource services, payroll and tech support.
Also, A.S. took advantage of the facility since the former Aztec Center closed as the Alumni Center opened. A.S. has also moved its offices there during the construction of the Aztec Student Union. Additionally, A.S. has staff from Viejas Arena, one of its facilities, working in the Alumni Center as well, so it isn’t as much of a drain on resources, Brown said.
Basically, the issue some have with this arrangement—budgeted to cost A.S. $157,000 next year—is that this money going toward a facility doesn’t provide a direct service to students, other than housing A.S. Student organizations that rent out the Alumni Center must still pay full price.
Not only that, but A.S. doesn’t see any of the money brought into the Alumni Center through events, even though A.S. funds some of these events by distributing Cultural Arts Special Events funds to student organizations. However, according to Roush, the Alumni Center has been able to lower the fees charged by the Alumni Center for events because of A.S.’s funding, giving an indirect benefit to students in that regard.
Another factor is the length of time this arrangement may last. While $157,000 may only be a small fraction of its $20 million budget, this has been the plan for four years now, and even with the economy and the California State University budget showing signs of stabilizing, there’s no planned end date for SDSU to retake the operating expenses of the Alumni Center. Roush said SDSU plans to reassume the operating expenses down the road when the school is in a more solid financial state, but this is likely to be several years from now, after A.S. moves from the Alumni Center to the Aztec Student Union.
A.S. should directly represent and benefit the students’ interests. Funding the Alumni Center and still making student organizations pay to rent it out for events may seem counterintuitive, but A.S. funding of it has allowed, in theory, SDSU to reduce the amount of cuts it had to make affecting students. It’s a gray area of interdependence between two tightly meshed entities on our campus, but it all appears to be done in the best interest of SDSU students.
