Correction appended
When Student Recreation Center Director Dennis Munroe realized he’d overstepped his boundaries by calling student Sen. Billy Hatch’s request for information irresponsible and distracting to his staff, Munroe responded by offering the best kind of retribution: He gave Hatch a hug.
It’s good to hear that senators and administrators are getting along on our campus. Unfortunately some serious questions remain regarding the rec center’s 2008-09 budget.
Since Jan. 2007, the Student Senate and Student Recreation Center Advisory Board have been working to address a drastic shortage of funds in the rec center’s budget. The debt was initially calculated at $133,000, but projections had that number doubling in one year if nothing was immediately done to rectify the situation. So the Senate responded by allocating $118,705 from its over-realized account toward ensuring that the rec center would not have to cut services.
One year later, with a budget no longer controlled by the ASUO, the rec center finds itself faced with a similar situation, and it is unclear whether Munroe and the rec center’s advisory board can work together to come up with a solution – especially considering that Munroe has largely failed to provide the advisory board with complete and accurate information in regards to the center’s financial operations. It took numerous requests from Hatch – who isn’t even a member of the advisory board – before the rec center accountant produced a line-item breakdown of the center’s budget. But the numbers provided were for just one year, lacking context to the extent that it will be impossible for advisory board members to make meaningful budget decisions.
Munroe’s behavior is reprehensible, and should not be tolerated from someone working for a department funded by students in an office built with student fees. Robin Holmes, vice president for student affairs, had to intervene and set up a meeting that included Munroe and Hatch to resolve the issue. That it took outside intervention for Munroe to surrender a budget shows how skewed his perception of student oversight truly is. Tuesday night, the advisory board made its official suggestion for a 10 percent budget increase. Munroe says it will take a 19 percent increase for the rec center to clear its budgetary hurdles, but Munroe’s complete unwillingness to explain why the increase is necessary or show where it would go has ensured that the final figure will be nowhere near that.
As for the advisory board, its members should be ashamed that they took such a lax stance and made someone outside the group get information from Munroe. Hatch’s dedication is admirable, but he shouldn’t have been the one to pressure the rec center’s administrators into producing a budget. If in future years the advisory board is going to be anything but a rubber stamp, it will have to carry the torch that Hatch has lit.
Because of an editor’s error, the increase recommended by the Student Recreation Center Advisory Board was misstated. The advisory board recommended a 10 percent increase.
The Emerald regrets the error.