To the Editor:
The letter written by David Mulliken on March 5 concerning the Will To Be Well was factually misinformed. ["Will to be Well Should Be Organized Differently"] Though I don't care to correct all the errors that show up in print, I feel compelled to offer the campus more informed information.
Adding student life as a budgeting priority would not require displacement of the current five. In fact there aren't any cut and dry mathematical ways in which the priorities are budgeted -- they are simply guidelines, and it is rather obvious and clear why these items are priorities and should remain so. We are asking for the addition of a sixth. If .5 percent of the operating budget were shifted to this sixth priority, by any number of feasible methods, then student life would receive an influx of $1.7 MILLION dollars (which could be channeled through the Undergraduate Finance Committee or other means).
This wouldn't require displacing the previous five priorities. If you need a strict mathematical analogy, this would be the equivalent of trimming an indistinguishable .1 percent from each of the existing 5 priorities to add up to .5 percent of the operating budget for the sixth, or $1.7 million dollars.
The reality of the situation is that there is a lengthy "laundry list" of items which are discretionary items for the Vice President and Treasurer to give to, or take from, as they see fit from their managerial experience. The theme the Assembly is trying to illustrate is a simple Robin Hood theory -- if student life was a priority then there would be far less taking from student life to give to the administrative bureaucracy. This would allow for the other priorities such as need blind admissions and academic support to continue perfectly well, while significantly bolstering the financial backing for student life issues such as the weight room -- which Mulliken seemed to agree is a major problem. Not all students, though, are as buffed as most CUAD members and thus may not identify with the weight room issue. Almost all students, however, can identify with an increased budget for their organization, activity or other parts of their day to day lives. That is why the Assembly has shifted its focus above and beyond the weight room. There is a dire need to increase student voice in the budgeting paradigm, and that is anything but folly Mr. Mulliken.
