No funds allocated for Department of music

For the 2011-12 school year, no funds were allocated to the Department of Music, including chorus and band.Public records report that the organizations have received money from SGA in previous years but the Department of Music did not receive funding from SGA for this school year or their liberal arts funding from the state due to a flaw in an “exchange of funds” throughout the university.

In the 1990s, there was an agreement made that the $16,000 the Department of Music received from state funding was to be given to Campus Life to fund a secretarial position according to an email from former SGA President Zach Mullins to Jennifer Flory, director of choral activities and associate music professor, in May 2010.

In return, SABC would give the $16,000 back to the department so they could use the funds for traveling. However, this arrangement changed for this school year and the music department was unaware of these changes until the release of SABC’s funding decisions.

Also in an email from May 2010, Mullins informed Flory that choral programs would receive their $4,000 from SABC for the 2010-11 year, but that it had been decided by SGA that they   “…do not want to continue to require SABC to automatically fund this arrangement without SABC approval” and that “for the next funding cycle, SABC is requiring music, theatre and choral to submit requests for SABC funding if they desire to receive their current allocations.”

The department continued to do what they were told for the 2011-12 school year and submitted a budget proposal to SABC for amounts of $10,000 for band, $4,000 for choral and $2,000 for theater which totaled the $16,000 of their state funding they give to Campus Life in the “exchange of funds” each year.

On May 9, 2011, it was released in an email from Zach Mullins stating that “although we recognize your organization’s contributions to the university and student body, there was simply not enough room in the student budget to accommodate your request for the next fiscal year,” meaning that the Department of Music would not receive their $16,000 of state funding that they gave up to fund a position in Campus Life.

“It felt like someone had just stabbed me in the chest when I read this,” Flory said. “I thought that our annual exchange was still in place and that I just had to send a budget proposal to have the funds on paper.”

Sean Espinosa, the SGA treasurer, commented on SABC not allocating funds to band, chorus or theatre.

“The reason SGA didn’t allocate any money to them was due primarily in part to SABC which is the Student Activities Budget Committee,” Espinosa said. “SABC received 50 applications in all and all those requests for student funding totaled more than $464,000. We had to reduce the budget 65 percent and retain a balanced budget for the next school year.”

Espinosa explained that most of their requests were for traveling to concerts and tours and that instead of applying for funds from SGA they were eligible for ATFC, or the Academic Travel Funding Committee, since the Department of Music is a part of academics.

Although they may be eligible to apply for funds from other places, the Department of Music still did not receive the money they received in the past.

“I asked if we could just go back to getting our money from the state but they said ‘no’ because that money was already put in place somewhere else,” Flory said. “I just believe that there is a major disconnect when the exchange stopped and that if it stopped, then funding should revert back to how it used to be.”

Bruce Harshbarger, vice president for student affairs, says that this exchange was a “verbal agreement” or a “gentleman’s agreement.”

However, it is confirmed in public records dealing with the issue, that it was a written agreement and signed off by Richard Greene, professor of music, and was approved and signed by former Georgia College President Rosemary DePaolo and that “any paper records of the agreements or anything pertaining to it would have been purged a few years ago.”

“We definitely know it was written,” Flory said. “It was just so long ago that we can’t find the written document because nothing was done electronically back then.”

Flory has accepted SABC’s decision for this year but has gone on to request funds from the academic side of things rather than the student side. The Office of the Provost found money in lapse funds from unfilled positions in academic affairs and were able to provide the money for the department needs this year.

“I know it’s not SGA’s fault because I don’t know if they knew about the original exchange, and I understand they are on a tight budget,” Flory said. “However, I may not be lucky enough to replace the money I lost this year if we don’t receive any money again next year and I know if this happens, there will be a lot of people, attitudes and jobs affected.”

In a document sent to SABC, that contained the history and current details of the case, the proposed remedy read that “the original exchange be continued or exact replicas of funding be found from other sources to be reinstated into annual SABC funding for band and choral” and “that it be made clear to SGA that the ‘SABC’ funding of band and choral (capitalized in the document?) is only “SABC’ in name and not under SGA’s scope when they are reviewing funding requests and making allocations.”

Flory has already sent in her budget proposal of $6,000 for chorus for the 2012-13 year.

“I guess the worst they can say is no,” Flory said.

Posted by CourtneyCoile on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.