Senate passes record budget, cuts ticket costs

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday approved a $1,394,300 budget for fiscal year 2010, the largest passed in the Senate's history and one that entirely eliminated ticket costs on campus.

The budget is roughly $200,000 bigger than past budgets, according to TCU Treasurer Matt Shapanka.

"It's the largest budget we've ever had, and by a significant amount," TCU President Duncan Pickard said yesterday, a day after the Senate's last meeting of the academic year.

The budget's exceptional size is largely a result of the doing away with ticket costs at student organization events.

In an effort to reduce student expenses at Tufts, the Senate will cover the expected revenue from ticketed events by paying student organizations in advance the amounts that would have otherwise come in through ticket sales.

The impact of this decision accounted for roughly $58,000 of the budget's increase, according to Shapanka, a senior.

Tufts students next year will not have to pay for tickets to on-campus events both sponsored and performed by TCU-recognized groups; the events must be open to all Tufts undergraduates. The change targets culture and arts performances by student groups, and does not include events by outside performers like last month's Jumbo Jam concert.

Pickard, a junior, said the end to ticket prices aims to address the financial burdens placed on students by costs not necessarily covered by financial aid or other means.

"I think that Tufts is doing a much better job of opening the doors of the university to students" from different socioeconomic backgrounds, he said. "But just because more students are here doesn't mean they can afford to take advantage of everything that's offered on campus."

The Senate, and Pickard in particular, has pushed for this change all year, at first looking into whether spending the recovered funds on this initiative would work.

"We were always thinking about ways that we could do this," Pickard said.

Including it in the budget, he said, could make it easier to become sustainable in the future.

The Senate discussed the proposal at its meeting last Sunday, voting 25-1-1 to tentatively move forward with plans.

In order to remain fiscally balanced while eliminating ticket costs, the Senate sacrificed in other areas.

Senators got rid of the Boston Bus Shuttle, almost entirely cut buffer funding available to student groups and cut the salaries of the TCU president and treasurer by more than half, Shapanka said.

Slashing the amount of buffer funding available means that student groups will have a harder time receiving extra funds from the Senate to cover unforeseen expenses next year.

The Senate will still have the option, however, to allocate next year's surplus to buffer funding. Each year, student groups generally spend $100,000 to $150,000 less than they are budgeted for, according to Pickard.

Next year's treasurer will be able to move that funding to the buffer fund. Shapanka said that that surplus amount is not guaranteed by any means, though.

A number of senators have questioned whether this new policy is sustainable or will adversely affect student groups who are in need of supplementary funds.

Shapanka said that while he was in favor of the cut in principle, it might not carry over to future budgets.

"I don't think our ability to pay for it is sustainable," he said.

He added that no student group was consulted before ticket costs were slashed. In addition, he said, he believes the Senate needs to have a discussion about its priorities.

Pickard remained optimistic, however, about the budget's model.

"There are some questions about whether this is sustainable, about whether this model that we set up is going to take place, or whether this surplus is going be exhausted," he said. "I think this is something that looks promising, and if there is any year to try it out, this is the year because we have so much extra money."

Next year's budget will consist of $123,557 for the cultural groups, $585,911 for social programming, $153,063 for media groups, $88,489 for religious groups, $100,319 for performance groups, $115,528 for miscellaneous and community expenses, $39,203 for academic and pre-professional groups, $26,676 for political groups, $160,661 for the TCU government and $890 for the buffer fund.

The Senate considered and voted on each category separately. Each clearly passed by a voice vote.

Eliminating ticket costs on campus is just one example of Senate initiatives to reduce student costs on campus.

The Senate last Sunday unanimously passed a resolution aimed at reducing the costs of textbooks. It encouraged faculty members to take certain measures to reduce the burden placed on students.

"[B]ooks are the single greatest out-of-pocket expenditure to students," read the resolution, submitted by the Senate's Services Committee.

If students were given notice about which books particular classes require further in advance, it stated, they could purchase those books for less money from Web sites such as Amazon.com.

The resolution recommended that teachers refrain from requiring new editions of textbooks, which often cost significantly more and have relatively few changes from older editions.

It also advised faculty to post online lists of required books along with international standard book numbers (ISBNs) when course offerings are made.

Shapanka said that, overall, reducing costs where possible has been a priority.

"The Senate is really committed to reducing the cost of attending Tufts and incidental costs and barriers to social and academic life," he said.

Ben Gittleson contributed reporting to this article.