Spare change may be hard to find for incoming campaign promises

By AMY OAKES
Collegian Staff Writer

With the limited budget the Undergraduate Student Government faces next year, the new president will encounter many difficulties implementing his platform goals.

Mike King, USG president, said without an increase in state funding and with the financial limitations imposed by the Tuition Challenge Grant, USG is "between a rock and a hard place."

Finding the money to support many of the campaign promises will be a difficult task, King said, but he added that the University has the ability to reallocate funds internally if it sees a pressing need.

"It won't be easy, but it's not impossible," King said. "The University just needs to see it as a top priority."

Corey O'Brien and Kara Annechini's plans to reform University Health Services by adding three more practitioners and establishing a 24-hour hotline are pressing issues that affect students' lives, King said.

"These could make a good case for reallocation of funds," he said, adding that the demonstration Friday was a creative way to bring the issue to the attention of administrators.

King said the status of health services reform depends on USG's continued efforts and the commitment of students.

Former USG President Chris Saunders agreed that student support is important. Saunders said a great deal of costly goals can be accomplished if students are mobilized.

"You mobilize students, then you have bargaining power," Saunders said, adding that there all kinds of funds in the central budget for "emergencies."

Saunders, who is working for the O'Brien/Annechini campaign, said he sees health services reform as a feasible goal if there is student support. "Students can give administration a vehicle for reforms," he said.

But Jason Sidener, a Bokee campaign worker, said he thinks reforming health services may be an unrealistic goal. "O'Brien has these lofty and ambitious goals, but you have to be realistic."

Sidener said the money that the University is planning to cut from health services belongs to the administration and not to O'Brien for his reform plans.

"It's an administration decision, it will go to what they find important," Sidener said.

Like the O'Brien platform, Josh Bokee and Kerith Strano's campaign goals will also be constrained by the limited budget, King said.

One of Bokee's proposed goals is to offer a free Town Loop and Campus Loop on weekends. Bokee's platform states that corporate sponsorship will be an important source of funding.

"That's an interesting idea," King said. "I see corporate sponsors supplementing the cost --but not funding all of it."

King said he isn't certain if Bokee realizes the actual cost of the Loop. Earlier this year, Bokee used money raised by the USG business department and two other organizations to fund a trial-run free Loop during two weekends in February.

"He conveniently forgot where the money came from," King said, adding that there must be a sustained source of funding.

But King added that he doesn't see the Loop plan as a pressing matter. "I don't see central administration finding money for this."

Money from the administration may not be required to fund the Loop. Sidener said Bokee's previous work on the matter will help set the plan in motion.

Bokee has said that he is awaiting a final confirmation on a $7,000 contract with AT&T.

"With everything I've seen, I think it's very feasible," Sidener said. "The money is there, you just need to know where to look for it."

Saunders, who looked into corporate sponsorship for USG initiatives during his term, said it is difficult to obtain. He added that if USG can obtain corporate sponsorships, he'd like to see the money go toward scholarship programs.

Another Bokee campaign goal that will require funding is expansion of operating hours in University computer labs. King, who has worked closely with the Center for Academic Computing, said he doesn't see this as a likely reform. "Having worked with CAC, I know they have a very, very limited budget," he said.

USG Vice President Lori Pennay said she is critical of Bokee's plan to add more "phones on a stick" to the campus. Pennay, who has worked on adding more emergency phones around campus, said Bokee's proposed phones won't be considered emergency phones.

"They will have a lot of difficulty obtaining funds for it," she said.