St. Thomas cultural clubs faced significant budget cuts over the summer, with university leadership redirecting funds from clubs’ community-building annual dinners to student retention efforts.
Student Diversity and Inclusion Services and the Diversity Activities Board decreased the dinner budget for each cultural club from $9,000 to $6,500 but last week raised the budget to $8,000. They also increased the attendance cap from 250 to 350 people.
These increases came after cultural club leaders expressed their budget concerns to SDIS director Marlon Blake and Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Baughman.
“It’s not a matter of not believing (the cultural dinners) are really important or anything like that. It was just, I would say, in essence, really looking at resources and how they were being used and kind of level setting a little bit,” Baughman said.
According to Muslim Student Association co-president junior Soora Khan and ASIA president junior Ayanna Patani, the need for a conversation with the university was imminent after other issues arose with last year’s dinners, such as the creation of new rules without consulting clubs.
Another issue was that the office required the clubs to use a time-consuming RSVP system to admit students into the dinners. E-board members had to check in each attendant by locating their name and email in a packet and then scanning their Tommie Link. Khan said this process prevented many e-board members from enjoying the cultural dinners.
After being notified about the reduction in funding over the summer, Patani created and shared a document among the cultural club presidents, listing grievances to SDIS and DAB.
“There was going to be a conversation had with SDIS and DAB regarding cultural dinners, but because (the budget decrease) was added on top of that, I don’t think that this would have been avoided,” Khan said.
Blake said that the university has been working to balance priorities within the SDIS office, including increasing funding for the Linkages Mentor Program and the Dease Scholarship.
“One of the gaps that we had was in our efforts around retention and around funding all of our retention efforts,” Blake said. “I think we did a good job in saying, ‘How do we maintain the cultural dinners, alleviating some costs, and being able to support some programs that traditionally haven’t had a lot of funding for it?’”
However, Patani said the multicultural clubs “are also part of that student retention, because in a predominantly white school, there aren’t many people that a colored person can connect to, and these clubs serve as a community for them to come to.”
In an email sent on Oct. 2, Baughman wrote, “We are reallocating funds from elsewhere in our Student Affairs and SDIS budgets to cover the additional funds.” In other words, the money reallocated to the fund for cultural dinners did not come back out of the funding added to the Linkages Mentor Program and Dease Scholarship.
Blake said that the SDIS office assumed costs that the cultural clubs typically fronted for the cultural dinners, including the photo booth. The office also created a closet where materials like decorations for the dinners can be stored and used in the future.
“We’re hoping that some of those things around the closet, helping with some of the other costs, will allow the students to still maintain the level of dinners they have done, but also decrease some of the costs,” Blake said.
Patani said that the cultural clubs have often shared supplies “to cut the cost, because again, we also want to have a buffer.” The buffer is needed to deal with miscommunication around catering costs, which Khan said left clubs “unknowingly in the negatives” when the budget system refreshed at the start of the school year.
Khan and Patani said that they were happy about the increase in funding, although “it’s the fact that they took it away in the first place that kind of says where their priorities lie,” Patani said.
Patani and Khan emphasized the community building that takes place and the sense of belonging that is created at the annual cultural dinners.
“We want to just be able to allow for a diverse community to flourish,” Patani said.
In an email, Baughman wrote, “We recognize how important these cultural celebrations are, and are working to support student leaders to host robust celebrations.”
In another recent email, Blake expressed gratitude to the cultural club leaders for sharing concerns with SDIS. He wrote that he and Baughman are open to hearing concerns “regarding broader experiences and questions about support from the University.”
“We understand that SDIS was doing everything they could to help us. At the end of the day, we’re all here to serve the students and create a welcoming community for students on campus,” Khan said.
Ilah Daood can be reached at daoo3174@stthomas.edu.
Miley Wichman can be reached at wich9078@stthomas.edu.
