by Carl Falcon
From April 10 to 16, students collected signatures for a petition asking the administration for more clarity in the budget process. Daniel Furuta ‘08 and Lauren Standifer ‘07 wrote the petition based on demands proposed by Wayne Moyer, Political Science.
“It started in the aftermath of the tuition hike,” said Furuta. “We thought the SGA’s response was good, but we thought we could do better.” The petition demands greater transparency in the budget-making process. The petition states that the signers “believe that it is unjust to demand that students pay ever increasing tuition rates when students and faculty are not only essentially excluded from the decision making process, but are also deprived of information concerning the budget.”
The petition asks that administrators publish a report covering the petitions issues and make it available to faculty and students. The report would appear when the proposed budget from the Campus Budget Steering Committee is presented to the Board of Trustees Budget Committee, then again when the Board finalizes and approves the budget.
Furuta, Standifer and others intersted in the cause collected faculty signatures for a similar petition the week before spring break. They hope that the administration will be more likely to grant the requests of united students and faculty members.
About 850 students signed signatures the student petition, and over 60 on the faculty petition. Many of the faculty signed the petition with a note saying they did not agree with the wording, only the demands.
Cassie Donnelly ‘06 and Standifer met with Vice President of Institutional and Budget Planning Jonathan Brand on April 15 to talk about the petition. “I was really optimistic [after the meeting],” said Standifer. “I felt like he was very receptive to our demands. He’s very enthusiastic about budget transparency and feels nothing in the budget should be secret.”
Brand said that while he “disagree[d] with the tenor and general assertions within the petition, I also believe there is nothing secret about the budget process.”
Brand said that much of the information the petition asks for is available in various places on the college website. The annually published College Factbook also answers frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the budget. On April 21, the administration posted the FAQs about next year’s budget at www.grinnell.edu/offices/institutionalplanning/2006budget.
“The questions about financial aid are not confidential,” said Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Crady when asked about one of the petition’s demands. “In fact we will probably provide more information then requested so students will have context to interpret the data.”
“From my mind, I think we have a transparent budget process that includes both faculty and students,” said Brand.
The budget for 2006 was finalized at the trustee meeting in February.
Standifer said the petitioners would prefer the information be organized in one place and easier to find.
According to Furuta, the intention of the petition was not only to give students the ability to fight the tuition hike, but also away to show the administration that students and faculty are upset. He explained that it is an especially good opportunity to show that students are displeased with some of the administration’s policies, “since it is a relatively dry issue.”
The petition, signed by 850 students and 60 faculty members, asked for the following from the administration:
• Yearly statistical trends in merit-based financial aid
• Yearly statistical trends in need-based financial aid
• The average debt in student loans of the graduating class of that year
• The planning assumptions made by the trustees when drawing up the budget
• The amount of money used to fund each construction project and every other Capital Reserve Fund project from 2000 to the current year, as well as what percentage of the funding is taken from the endowment
• Major priorities for the next year’s budget
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