6 THE GUILFORD IAN Senator's Notebook James Green Nov. 13 was the date. Senate was about to begin, and I was looking for a chair. As luck would have it, I spotted an open position next to Guy Vitaglione—the man, the myth, the legend and Guilford's own Senate president. The meeting moved swiftly through each executive officer's reports. Guy re ported that Ciba-Geigy, a large local chemical company, has joined Guilford in supporting the Bell-Glazner Alterna tive for the site of Painter Boulevard's construction. This was welcome news. We then moved to committee reports where Lew Riley announced that he is seeking help for the Academic Affairs Committee meetings, which are held Thursdays at 9 p.m. in Dana 3. Maybe they could discuss the great shaft of 1991 (AKA registration), where it is pointless to declare a major or even pick classes that you want to take becasue they're all going to be closed anyway. Talk of cocrccd kissing and sexual misconduct then broke out in Borcn Lounge, and we began discussing the sexual harrassment policy. We will con tinue to do so next week. Please see your senator, who has a copy of this policy. Give us your input, because the finished version will appear in the student hand book and directly affect you. Then we finally got to the good stuff— the keg policy. We will discuss this more next week, but we did get some discus sion in this past Wednesday. Last week I said that this keg policy thing won't affect students, because they don't pay much attention to the incredible number of rules and regulations that Residential Life wants to impose. I still think that this is true. I also pointed out that Residential Life needs to spend their time and our money doing something else. I think there are plenty of other problems that need atten tion, and I don't see why keg beer shouldn't be treated like other beer. If youareunder2l and get caught drinking, you should be written up. What's the difference between a keg and lots of cans? I could go on forever, but I won't. See your senator about this issue, too, because whatever is decided will be come part of the handbook along with the sexual harrassment clauses. I want to encourage everyone to attend Senate meetings, because—as I always say—they are tons of fun, they are im portant, and because you can usually hear Richard Ford speak, and that alone should be encouragement enough. Join us at 2:30 on Wednesdays in Boren Lounge. Budget woes require stipend cuts Skip Davenport Staff Writer Because of over-spending last year and plummeting interest rates, the Senate is be ing forced to cut back the amount of money paid in stipends to balance the budget. The money for stipends is interest the general fund has made over the summer. The general fund is money leftover from the Senate's previous year. Because less money was put into the fund last year, the amount of interest earned has shrunk. The problem has centered around how to cut back on the amount of money spent on stipends. Student leaders have come to ex pect a certain amount of money and the Senate has promised the money. "One option," said Senate Treasurer Susannah Street, "is to use the Student Ac tivities fee which hasn't been allocated." Largely this will be an issue for the Senate 1992-93 but options are being put forth now. This issue will be bigger next year because they will not have a residual fund and will not have the option of using other funds. Three years ago the Senate was spend ing SSOOO per year. Last year the sum rose Budget >■ continued from page 1 providing students," said Rogers. "We were spending 1.5 million in financial aid in 1989-90, and now we are spending close to 3 million in financial aid for this year. Fi nancial aid has expanded most rapidly." Rogers also stated that Guilford will have to choose whether it can continue to spend the same amount on financial aid in its attempts to continually improve the aca demic quality and racial diversity of stu dents. Anthony Gurley, director of student fi nancial assistance and planning, echoed similar concerns about financial aid at the meeting. Gurley stated that he believed Guilford was "grossly underfunded" rela tive to various other schools in its ability to provide such large amounts of financial aid for its students. In addition to discussing the looming 1992-93 budget, the administration also re leased a proposal detailing how the college can account for its current budget deficit of $402,617 reflected in the 1991-92 budget. The current deficit of $402,617 marks the third straight year that Guilford has been forced to balance expected revenues with expected expenditures by employing bud get cuts in various areas of the college. Last year Guilford was forced to cut $2 million of requested expenditures in order to balance the budget with anticipated rev enues. Included in last year's cut was the reduction or elimination of 29 administra tive and support staff positions. It was ac- News to between $ 12,000 and $ 15,000. Currently, the Senate is spending SIO,OOO per year and would like to return to the SSOOO total spent might ask student leaders to give up grants voluntarily." ■■■ ;} ■ * Street Senate Treasurer three years ago. Stipends are a way to reward student leaders for their taking responsibility in col lege organizations. Senate President Guy Vitaglione emphasized that stipends are "not a payroll, they are just a token of apprecia tion. Senate members have been trying to find other ways of rewarding student lead ers; a proposal to combine some other type of incentive and monetary incentives seem companied by a 9.5 percent increase in tu ition and room and board expenses. According to information submitted by Poteet, the current proposals for balancing the 1991-92 budget include deferring repay ment of residence hall renovations, the din ing hall addition, the purchasing of equip ment and housekeeping supplies and the repayment of the field house expansion and computer purchases. It was also suggested that a five percent cut in the "discretionary" operating budget of the college be implemented, producing a savings of sllO thousand, according to in formation provided at the meeting. Cuts in the "discretionary" operating bud get would include all unspent money de voted toward meeting all the basic costs required to operate the college, but would not include a variety of costs such as basic telephone expenses, salaries and fringes, stu dent aid, academic departmental operating budgets and other established costs. Following the presentation by Poteet, Williams, a faculty member who serves on the college's Budget and Planning Commit tee, spoke on what he saw as some of the underlying causes of the college's budget problems. Williams stated that he agreed with Poteet that the 1992-93 Guilford budget outlook appeared "bleak" and that he essentially agreed with the currently projected $2 mil lion plus budget shortfall for next year. He pointed to a variety of causes which have created budget problems. These in cluded Guilford's increase in buildings and renovations such as the new apartments, loop road and Bauman Telecommunications Center, the college's increase in personnel, the most plausible. The nature of stipends has been to com pensate a student for time that could be spent working at another semester Because so much money wasbeingspent last year, the IRS became interested. Ac cordingly the "new" Senate has changed the name of stipends to honorariums and pays taxes on the money for the first time in the history of the program. Several proposals have been put forth to curb stipend spending. Street said, "The Senate might ask student leaders to give up grants voluntarily." including a substantial increase in Guilford's administrative and support staff; and a sig nificant increase in the college's insurance needs and subsequent costs. Williams also stated that in considering ways to address the projected shortfall for next year, the college can ill-afford saving money by reducing faculty salaries and fringes as it would further reduce morale and create the potential loss of Guilford's most marketable faculty members. Said Williams, "I do not support the idea of paying for these new buildings by taking it out of salaries and fringes. Ifwe do this, we are risking losing Guilford's blue chips." Williams also said that if Guilford is going to effectively balance expected revenues with expected expenditures in the future, it will have to make some hard choices, including the likelihood of eliminating administrative and staff personnel and possibly even some faculty positions. "Staff reduction is a must if we want to continue to maintain quality," said Williams. "This year we essentially are using our re serves—the liquid part of our endowment— to balance the budget. But, eventually, staff reductions are going to be necessary and this may even include some faculty positions. We just can't keep expanding." Williams also reported that analysis of past institutional audits from 1985 to 1991 indicated that expenditure increases were occurring in a variety of administrative ar eas, in addition to areas such as financial aid, admissions and public relations. He indi cated that areas involving expenditures for faculty instruction have consistently been going down relative to other expenditures within the institution. November 15, 1991 job. The amount of money received varies and is based on the amount of time put into the or ganization. The Senate has the responsibility of estimating the amount of time each position requires and reexamines these figures at the beginning of each

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