Editorial: ASUCD budget

In past years, ASUCD budget hearings have been long and disorganized, and it was clear senators were not familiar with the budget. However, this year, budget hearings ran smoothly and the budget itself was reasonable.

The members of the executive office coached the senate on budget hearing procedures and as a result, it seemed like the senate understood what to expect. Instead of running over the scheduled meeting times like last year, budget hearings ended early. Even with this improvement, the senate still effectively scrutinized the budget.

ASUCD chose to cut the Book Exchange to invest in more productive units such as The Pantry and KDVS. In addition, the executive office decided against giving the president, controller, senators and commission chairs pay raises. We support these decisions because ASUCD officials should be focused on helping the student community; giving themselves raises while cutting units just looks bad.

While ASUCD did a good job with the budget, there were some issues that were not handled correctly.

President Adam Thongsavat proposed an increase to his special project budget from $1,800 to $3,150 with the intention of creating the community t-shirt project. Despite being reduced to $3,000 this still seems excessive.

The t-shirts, which would be available for purchase, are supposed to foster a sense of community. However, $3,000 would be a lot of money to spend on t-shirts, especially when students already have the option of buying UC Davis apparel elsewhere.

Despite some unnecessary spending, the ASUCD 2011-12 budget was handled well with most funds appropriated fairly. Future senators should continue to work hard on the budget and make fiscally responsible decisions that benefit the student body.