Since 19
“of, by, and
nity-^
OlUME XIX
MARch 2004
Numder
ipside
tHis
issue
Page 2
Random Thoughts
from across Campus
Page 3
Matthew on Movies
He's Back and He s Bored
Page 4
Wesleyan Athletes
Grab Honors
Retnetnberiiig
Our Past
Wm
Budget Cuts are Nothing
New at NCWC
Page 5
ProtestCM's Mark ihc
First AniiiNrrsao’ of iho
War in Iraq
Your Decree
Staff
Bditor-in-Chief
-Ron Fitzwater-
Copy Editor
-Carlf-i Fitzwater-
Comributing Writers
-Matthew Esterlinp-
-R«nnv Tayior-
Facufty Adviser
-Dr. I) K Compbc l-
T
By; Ron Fitzwater
March 22. 2004
The voices were loud and the
tempers were flaring as Peter
Phaiah, Director of Housing and
Auxiliary Services for North Carolina
Wesleyan College, outlined the
situation that has led to freezing
the use of student activities fees
for the remainder of the 2003-
2004 academic year. Questions of
who made the decision to freeze
the funds and why, were the main
questions, along with one additional
and important one, who is to blame
for the shortfall in the budget?
WhenOTntacted for comment about
the budget freeze, Vice-President
of Finance and Administration,
Belinda Faulkner, was unable to
provide any information stating,
“To tell you the truth, I really have
nothing that ! can tell you at aii. I
would say that you need to speak
with Peter Phaiah or the President,
I really haven’t any information that
I can contribute.”
Peter Phaiah was contacted for
comment and provided what
information he had. It was mostly
a repeat of what he had delivered
at the SGA meeting, but in a much
calmer setting.
When asked to explain what the
situation really was, Phaiah said
he had found out about the freeze
on March 18 when he happened
to be in the main administration
building. VP Faulkner informed him
that the “budget had been frozen."
The President had just been
informed that the budgets were
to be frozen and Phaiah was told
“that there were some short falls
in the expected revenue that was
coming in and some other things
that were coming in, with the result
being that we had to put a freeze on
anything that was not contractually
obligated."
Phaiah informed the SGA about
the situation and explained, “that
there is a shortfall in cash flow
and it is for multiple reasons. “The
few that I am aware of I explained
to them (SGA). What I said is that
we (Wesleyan) are tuition driven;
everything we do is based on tuition.
MHBli
Sign HangoF
We don’t have a big endowment,
probably only about 6 to 8 million,
so we rely heavily on tuition. What
happened was we did a great job
recruiting, but we have a problem
with retention. • We’re losing them
faster than we’re bringing them in.”
Continuing, Phaiah explained
a few reasons why the shortfall
had occurred. “When we did our
budgets for last year we did a
projection that we could recruit a
good number and retain a good
number. Well, we exceeded our
recruitment but we fell short on
retention. That could be because
of costs going up, students being
upset, or us not having programs.
We had a short fall there; we thought
that we could do a good job in the
spring, bring in a few new people
and also hold off on retention,
because you lose people in the
spring too. Graduation, people
dropping out, or just wanting to
quit.... people upset. So that’s one
reason. I also told them another
reason was that in the fall we had
a lot of students who are not filling
out their paperwork: who are not
signing their promissory notes.
Not doing the things so that money
gets released to the college. The
banks are holding a substantia!
the dampu^^ctivities Board
amount of money, so we are trying
different strategies to get students
over to the business office to sign
the paperwork. Also some people
are missing paperwork and until all
the paperwork is in, that’s money
we can’t touch. That would take
care of a lot of problems.
Just a few weeks ago we received
letters from the banks saying
that they can’t release money
to us because people owe them
paperwork. Put all this together and
that’s a lot of money. Maybe ten
times more than they (SGA) need
for their budget. Based upon those
things, unless it is life threatening,
has to be paid, or is contractual, we
don’t have the money.”
“...we did a great job recruiting,
but we have a problem with
'etention. We’re losing them
faster than we’re bringing them
’n.”
There is, however, one factor that
may be contributing to the need for
funds to be redirected. The official
web site for The Chronicle of Higher
Education, which can be found
See Frozen page 7
NoRTh CARoliNA WesIeyan CoUeqe Rocky Mount, NortM CaroIIna 27804