I currently work in student activities; we are currently facing a philosophical quandary with relation to spending in a time of financial contraction in the university as a whole. Our particular university has experienced budget cuts in the range of 10%, a moratorium on student travel, and constant threats from both the administration and the governor that further cuts will be coming. The question comes in when we talk about sources of money.
In a public institution, money that comes from the state (in this sense I mean the actual state of residence, not the state as in the nation) is subject to much more budgetary restriction. State appropriations are contingent on tax revenue, and as is common these days, when tax revenue goes down, higher ed is often one of the quickest programs to be trimmed so that resources for the welfare state will not be cut. Unemployment insurance and food stamps takes precedence over educating our best and brightest, but such is the state of affairs in the neoliberal republic.
In student activities at my university, the funding does not come from the state or tax revenue but from a self-imposed student fee. Currently that fee is around $14 per semester. We have not, as of yet, experienced a reduction in our student fee to pay for the economic crisis, and frankly, due to the size of the fee, I think that a cut is unlikely. But the debate is whether it’s socially responsible to continue spending as normal because our fee has not been cut, even though the supervisory organization which the staff belongs to is being asked to trim over 10% from their budgets.
On the reverse side, the students that are currently attending the university have paid their 2008-2009 fees and should receive the optimal benefit for their dollar. It may be unethical to not spend as much of the money allocated as possible on current students and allow them to receive the benefits. We, as a department, made the choice to continue spending student fees that are currently in pocket on the current students, but with the caveat that current students must receive the maximum benefit of the project.
Personally, I believe this to be the biggest benefit of any crisis situation, whether it be personal, local or even national. A crisis is an opportunity to reflect on our values and to think about what may be most important. While we are in crisis, we can reconnect with what our values should be and emerge leaner and meaner and more prepared to do great work in the world. In our particular situation, we remembered that the reason we exist is to provide high quality and efficient programming for students. Rather than spending on computers for the office or infrastructure upgrades for the cinema, the optimum value to our students is to provide the most high quality programming for our money.
However, a crisis is also times where if we do not consider our ethics during a time of crisis, we can get ourselves into more trouble than we were in previously. Trimming budgets can lead to passing more costs on to students rather than trimming unnecessary programs or streamlining existing programs; this is unethical and cannot be allowed to happen. If it is happening at your university, I encourage you to be the voice of reason and speak of how we must always put students first in our decisions and not place more burden on them to save ourselves the trouble.
