Proposed IUSA budget stresses Culture of Care

More than half of Indiana University Student Association’s proposed $99,735 budget for the 2013-2014 school year will support various IUSA initiatives such as Culture of Care and construction of the proposed Union Lounge.

IUSA Treasurer Casey Baker presented the budget to the IUSA Congress Sept. 4, and she also outlined individual budgets for various initiatives supported by the administration. IUSA initiatives will be receiving $54,554 in support.

Of those initiatives, Culture of Care week will receive a majority of the funding, with a total budget of $10,000 to support the week’s various activities. The money pays for events and Culture of Care promotional items throughout the week. Baker could not be more specific at this time.

According to the IUSA website, the Culture of Care initiative is a year-long effort to promote students’ physical, social and mental health on campus.

Baker said part of the expanded Culture of Care initiative is bringing lecturers to campus to speak to students regarding a variety of health topics. The combined amount budgeted for the fall and spring Culture of Care speakers is $8,000.
She said the total attributes to speaking fees and travel costs.

Baker said the cost for speakers and large events is generally split between IUSA and other student organizations on campus, which varies with each event.

She said the same arrangement will apply to the Diversity Lecture series beginning this month, when R&B producer Amir Windom will visit the campus and speak about his experiences. Budget for the Diversity Lecture speakers for fall and spring will be $9,000.

The spring speaker has yet to be determined.

Another initiative receiving a substantial sum is the tailgate revamp, which was one of the YOUniversity ticket’s platforms. Baker said the initiative has will provide boxed water to students on the tailgate fields.

A total of $6,204 has been budgeted for the effort, of which $3,894 has already been put toward ordering boxes for the first two tailgates and designing the box design
template.

Baker said the water will be provided starting next week, and the first two games where it’s provided will be a trial run.

Should everything go well, Baker said IUSA will be placing another order for water in the amount of $2,310 to cover water for the remaining tailgates of the season. At this time, Baker said 1,440 boxes have been ordered.

Baker said the cost of the water is expected to go down as more is ordered.

A new initiative featured as one of the ticket’s platforms was the formation of the Union Lounge, a bar in the IMU where Baker said students would be able to get to know their professors after office hours.

“Students can go to professors after class or after office hours and have a drink with your professor,” she said.

Though the lounge is still in its early planning stages, Baker said IUSA is making a $5,000 donation to support its addition to the Indiana Memorial Union.

“It’s still in the early stages, so it’s hard to tell exactly how much it’s costing,” she said. “We have a lot of models on it to see how much it could possibly cost.”

Baker said prior to presenting the budget, she sat down with the directors of each initiative to gain insight of what they expected from the program this year.

“They would give me an itemized list, and if they weren’t sure of a cost, I would take my best guess,” Baker said.

A finalized version of the IUSA budget is up for a vote the next Congress meeting on Sept. 18.

Should any more funding be required to support a specific effort, funding will be moved from another section of the budget to supplement.

“I think this figure is pretty set in stone, so I don’t foresee any more costs occurring,” Baker said.

Follow IUSA reporter Holly Hays on Twitter @hv_hays.