The San Jose State Associated Students board of directors was presented with a request to consider granting the school money from the A.S. reserve funds during Wednesday’s Zoom meeting.
Executive Director Carole Dowell, who presented the item, said this would help with the university’s $92 million deficit.
Dowell said in the meeting the financial gap occurred because of the coronavirus pandemic, citing reasons such as loss of “state funding, spring refunds for housing, meal plans and parking fees.”
In the proposal, SJSU requested a $4 million grant from the A.S. reserve fund for the 2020-21 academic year with an additional $1 million each year for two years after that.
The grant, totaling $6 million from the A.S. funds, would be given to the university for “student-related purposes.”
A.S. funds are generated from student fees accrued from things like the on-campus print shop and used to fund programs and opportunities for all students.
A.S. directors took turns asking questions about the proposal to Dowell, Sonja Daniels, associate vice president of campus life and James Westbrook, A.S. finance and accounting manager.
“If we give all this $4 million . . . that’s not even half of what we have left,” said Controller Flor Sario. “If you know anything about business, that’s one heck of a loan.”
Associated Students currently has $11 million in reserve funds, with a proposed operating budget of about $6 million for the 2020-21 academic year, according to the 2014-21 A.S. reserve analysis.
Anoop Kaur, A.S. academic affairs director, asked if this was the first time the university asked for money from the board, to which Dowell said the request was unprecedented.
Westbrook sided with the board saying that, “there wasn’t a good reason given,” for the university to ask for money from Associated Students.
However, Westbrook admitted that the university would not be able to pay off a traditional loan with interest given the circumstances, which is why this method was proposed.
Daniels provided more context to the board of directors on the budget situation and said that if the funding is not passed, there could be possible cuts to personnel, student affairs or academic advising.
She said the university has financially invested in training teachers and technology that used a lot of the year’s budget, but that the university was still in a better position compared to other institutions.
“No staff or faculty have gone through layoffs,” Daniels said.
She compared the university’s lack of layoffs to San Francisco State, which laid off 131 staff members this semester, according to a Sept. 10 San Francisco Chronicle article.
Daniels explained that there aren’t any new funds for new initiatives and the current funds are tightly allocated for certain purposes like for the Interdisciplinary Science Building.
“Those are kind of dedicated funds that you can’t all of a sudden go, ‘I’m going to stop building this building,’ without some major ramifications there,” Daniels said.
Kadence Walker, A.S. legislative affairs director, asked if the $4 million dollars would be more like a gift, to which controller Sario confirmed that it would be.
Walker then asked if the amount of money and duration of the grant could be negotiated.
“You’re in the driver's seat on this, you can reject it outright,” Finance Manager Westbrook replied.
Kaur said if the grant is approved, the university could potentially use it as leverage to ask for more money in the future.
“It’s a dangerous precedent if we gift this money to the university, although it is important to support the university during this time,” Kaur said.
Because the proposal was just a discussion item for the Sept. 23 meeting, no decision was made on whether the university would go through an official petition to approve the funds request.
