The Student Fees Advisory Committee convened Monday to hear budget requests for fiscal year 2009 from organizations that utilize student-service fees, of which three requested increased funding.
If the requests are approved they will be sent to UH President Renu Khator, and she will forward her recommendations to the UH System Board of Regents for final approval.
The Board-approved budgets will go into effect on Sept 1. 2008, the first day of fiscal year 2009.
Counseling and Psychological Services Director Ken Waldman said additional student fees are needed to increase the size of his staff.
"We provide services with the goal of helping students succeed," Waldman said.
Waldman requested a $49,157 increase to CAPS’ base budget for fiscal year 2009 in addition to its $1,129,666 student-service fee base budget.
Waldman said CAPS is "grossly understaffed," and he would like to add a full-time psychologist with a projected salary of $67,000 a year.
If this is not feasible, Waldman said he would like to add a clinical assessment post-doctoral fellow with a projected yearly salary of $49,000.
"Post-doc is easier to get because there are a lot of students finishing internships," he said.
CAPS has six full-time psychologists and one post-doctoral fellow, according to its organizational chart.
Waldman said that CAPS’ staff-to-student ratio is roughly one staff member for every 3,400 students, which falls short of the International Association of Counseling Services’ recommendation of a staff-to-student ratio of one staff member per 1,500 students.
CAPS’ ability to counsel suicidal students is especially vital to the community, Waldman said, citing a spring 2006 survey conducted in part by CAPS of 1,000 UH undergraduates and 1,000 graduate or professional students that revealed 23.61 percent of respondents had "seriously considered" suicide and 12.5 percent had attempted suicide at least once.
University Center and Associated Facilities Director Keith Kowalka requested a base augmentation of $20,723 for the UCAF in fiscal year 2009 in addition to the UCAF’s $1,317,05 student-service fee base budget.
Kowalka said the funding is necessary to compensate the UCAF’s 70 part-time student employees as the federal minimum wage incrementally rises to $7.25 an hour in June 2009.
"The federally mandated increases to the minimum will substantially impact the University Center … and all departments which are funded by the SFAC," Kowalka said. "As many of our student employee positions are below the hourly rate that will be finalized in July 2009, if funding is not identified we will have to either reduce staff, full-time or student, or use funding earmarked for use for ongoing renovation projects and deferred maintenance issues."
Assistant Dean of Students Bianca Springer requested $7,290 for the Dean of Students Student Handbook for current fiscal year, comprised of $6,840 for the printing of an additional 5,000 student handbooks and $450 as prizes for the Through My Lens Student Handbook Cover Contest. She also requested the same amount be added as a base augmentation for fiscal year 2009
"We printed 20,000 handbooks last year instead of the normal 30,000 and ran into a good problem," Springer said. "We ran out of handbooks."
In 2006-2007, 30,000 handbooks were printed with 10,000 left over that had to be recycled. However, the Through My Lens cover-design contest created an additional interest in the handbooks, according to the request.
The Child Care Center ended fiscal year 2007 with a balanced budget after years of financial struggle, according to its report, and made no additional requests for its student service-fee base for fiscal year 2009.
The Student Program Board – which had half its base budget converted into a one-time allocation by the SFAC in 2007 as a probationary measure because of the organization’s lack of diversity – requested its budget be returned to its pre-fiscal year 2008 base.
Student Legal Services, The Blaffer Gallery, the Dean of Students Success programs, the Dean of Students Ombudservice and the Dean of Students Student Information and Assistance Center did not make any budget requests differing from fiscal year 2008.
SFAC hearings will continue from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. today in the UC’s Bluebonnet Room and are open to the public. Student Publications, which includes The Daily Cougar, will present its budget request to the committee at 11 a.m.
Hearings will also continue Monday and Feb. 20.
Additional reporting by The Daily Cougar News Staff
