Newspapers / Lambda. / Oct. 1, 1984, edition 1 / Page 7
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CGC and CGA: 1984-85 Budget Hearings Part of CGA*s history is its survival of the Campus Governing Council (CGC) annual budget process. Each spring, CGA submits a budget for each program planned for the next fiscal year for approval by the CGC. Likewise, each spring campus political and religious conservatives mount a campaign against the "heathen and illegal" homosexuals. THE IDEAL BUDGET PROCESS The student government budget process begins soon after campus elections are held and new student government officers and CGC representatives are sworn in. Each officially recognized student organi zation wanting funding from student activities fees then submits a budget for review and approval by the CGC. The request includes a description of each program or service planned for the coming fiscal year, a detailed breakdown of associated costs, and proposed sources of income, which are usually combinations of student government appropriations and organizational fundraising. The worth of each proposed program or service is adjudged in "qualitative hear ings" by the Student Affairs and Rules & Judiciary committees. Using criteria such as number of students benefitted by and involved in each program, this committee ranks each program—not the organization —on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 having highest priority for funding. These recommendations are sent along with the organization’s budget to the Finance Committee which then recommends specific amounts of funding. The commit tee must submit a balanced budget for approval by the full CGC, so it gives funding priority to highly ranked programs and funds lower ranked ones as money allows. The balanced budget bill is then sub mitted to the full CGC for discussion and approval at an all-day meeting near the end of the spring semester. THE 1984-85 CGA BUDGET In March CGA submitted a budget total $3,108 that included money for 200 additional copies of Lambda, an informa tional brochure for all new students, an updating of the Triangle Area lesbian/ gay resource list. Gay Awareness Week publi— uity, hand-outs for the speakers bureau, and a part-time student assistant to staff the CGA office. In "qualitative hearings," CGA programs were ranked highly. Necessary administra tive expenses, such as business telephone, received highest priority, and other programs, including Lambda, the Outreach Program, and Gay Awareness Week, also received high marks." ^lo program received a rating lower than 3. A low priority was however given to the proposed student assistant position inasmuch as CGC did not have money to allow program expansion. But this report never reached the Finance Committee. When the Committee convened to review the CGA budget on April 4, no copy of the qualitative report could be found, and no representative from the qualitative committee was available. Finance Committee chairman, Tim Newman, proceeded with the first item of business, a request by two people to speak against CGA funding. Committee members voted to allow each speaker 5 minutes and to give CGA comparable response time. Dave Fazio asked committee members "to keep your hearts open," and said he was not against civil rights, adding, "...but their (CGA) funding has no bearing on civil rights for gays." Fazio based his objections to CGA fund ing on his religious beliefs. "I have spiritual convictions against this. By letting the University fund this, we’re approving it. Maybe God can heal homo sexuals. There are deliverance minister- ies for homosexuals; why don’t we fund these?" The second speaker, Steve Epstein, cited North Carolina General Statute 14- 177 as "prohibiting any act which the CGA would condone." After responses by CGA co-chair Robert Pharr and SEEDS party member Doug Berger, the Committee proceeded with the budget at hand. Considering that total requests for student government funding from 35 campus organizations totaled about $340,000 and that CGC had $225,000 to allocate, the Committee’s charge was to cut to the bone. CGA’s request for Increased Lambda circulation was cut, as was the request for a student assistant. A request for $300 for honoria for public lectures was cut in half. The "orientation brochure" generated considerable debate among Committee mem bers. The one-page brochure, requested for all new students’ orientation packets, poses often-asked questions about gay people along with general information for the new student who may be dealing with openly gay people for the first time. Questions included are. What does being "gay" mean? and Can a person be gay and religious too? Some Committee members thought the brochure would be offensive to parents of freshmen and an embarrassment to the University. Funding was cut in half for this program. The Committee also cut the requested student government allocation to just - (see BUDGET on page 8)
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