Central Programming Fund receiving $26,100 more next year
The Central Programming Fund is receiving a $26,100 addition to its base funds next year after it had been a gift the past two years.
The addition was announced Wednesday at the Board of Trustees – Student Liaison Committee meeting by David Burdette, vice president of finance and administrative services.
The gift, which will raise next year’s budget to $826,100, stems from the days of former University President Michael Rao. It has been added to the budget as a result of the Student Government Association request to raise the budget to $1 million to fight higher costs.
“What impacts your program funds is inflation and inflating program costs,” Burdette said.
Burdette said that the administration has not yet dealt with the SGA’s request for an increase in funds, but budget cuts in other areas may make the request difficult to fulfill.
The CPF funds Program Board, Minority Student Services, the Leadership Institute and the Student Budget Allocation Committee.
“These groups have really felt the financial pressure of increase in programming costs,” said Student Government Associaiton President and Mount Pleasant senior Jason Nichol. “We’re hopeful this increase in the CPF and the potential for future increases can help enhance programming.”
SOS online? SGA is also hoping to bring the results of Student Opinion Surveys online. SGA wishes to aid students in selecting classes with the results of the SOS in conjunction with grade distributions, Nichol said.
“We just want to provide student with the best means necessary to select classes,” Nichol said. “We want to increase transparency in the university.”
Similar programs are set up at universities like Ohio State University and Stanford University. Central Michigan would be the second school in the state to set up a student opinion database behind the University of Michigan.
Faculty members fear that this new data could lead students to “grade shop” and look for easy classes, Nichol said. Nichol also said he had asked for a written statement on the issue from the Faculty Association, but did not receive one. SGA plans to bring the matter to the Academic Senate next month.
“I think the administration needs to work this out with the faculty,” said Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe.
SGA believes that putting the SOS results online would be a larger, less-biased database of student opinions than third party Web sites like ratemyprofessors.com and koofers.com, Nichol said.
