University Union talks budget cuts, this weekend’s Juice Jam
UU leadership said they “still don’t understand” aspects of recent cuts to the organization’s budget. The budget has been reduced by nearly half. Joe Zhao | Senior Staff Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
After University Union announced changes to event programming due to recent budget cuts on Sept. 3, The Daily Orange sat down with UU President Kate McKenna and Public Relations Co-directors, Charlotte Wall and Lachlan Sartison, in anticipation of Juice Jam this weekend.
Q: When did UU find out about the recent budget cuts and how they would be impacting your programming this year?
McKenna: I first found out about the budget reductions being a tentative possibility back in April. It was right after I was elected. We found out a little bit as the process was going on with submitting our budget for the following year, because we get funded for a full year at a time. We got finalized numbers right around last school year ending.
Q: What was UU’s reaction to those budget cuts and how did that alter the way you guys planned for student programming this year, like Juice Jam?
McKenna: I was definitely a bit shocked. There’s been times in the past where we haven’t been fully funded to 100% of what we ask for, but we were reduced by nearly half of what we’re typically funded for this year, and some of our initiatives were not funded at all.
For certain things, such as our performing arts shows, the noted cause was for attendance purposes. However, our performing arts shows are some of our most highly attended events in relation to capacity of venue. There are some things that we still just don’t understand. We did get a little money back from what we had originally been told our budget was for the year, and we still have a good working relationship with Student Government.
At first we didn’t know if it was going to be possible to even do certain things, and we’ve had to work through a lot of things, both internally with the organization, coming up with ideas, and also speaking with our advisor and other people in Student Engagement to find out what we can afford with the budget that we have and how we can work through putting on programming events and affording certain things. It’s not just an artist that we pay for. For Juice Jam, we’re paying for venues, stage production and all those sorts of things. It reduced what we could do in all different types of capacities.
Q: Why did you decide to make Juice Jam free entry this year, and do you anticipate trying to keep future events free for students? Is this a one-time thing?
McKenna: It really does come down to the venue. So the Quad is not a space that we have ever charged for events. So we went into it and the second we found out that we were going to be doing Juice Jam on the Quad, we knew it was going to be free. In the past, our other events that we do, besides Juice Jam and Block Party, are typically free, except for our performing arts shows. I do anticipate that there will be ticket sales for Block Party in the spring.
Q: Do you think that something like Block Party in the spring might be on the Quad again?
McKenna: I can’t say for certain what Block Party is going to look like, just because we’re still going step by step through each event and how we can program them, but I do anticipate Block Party being a much bigger event than Juice Jam.
Q: Has Syracuse University offered you guys any additional financial support during this time, or have you guys looked into trying to find funding from other sources?
McKenna: The way that we’re funded, we just get the money that comes to us through the budget process, through the school. We don’t have any initiatives for fundraising; we don’t plan to. So that’s kind of the only way that we can source our money, is what we have through the school.
Wall: We do have plans to collaborate on different kinds of events for the student body, like with other organizations such as SGA (Student Government Association) or Greek Council.
Q: How do you plan to keep students updated on how budget cuts might be affecting programming, or if things are going to look different than what they usually anticipate every year?
Sartison: The transparency is huge, especially with a student organization like this, really valuing that student experience. Students at Syracuse are very understanding in the sense of how we can allocate our funds efficiently and reasonably.
Wall: As an organization, we’re very committed to the student body and doing what the student body wants from us and expects from us. As we’re going through all these different events and programs that we have already planned, they might look a little different, but we’re still just as committed to making them a great experience for students.
McKenna: We’re really hoping to be able to build back up, hopefully within the span of a couple years, because it is a process to get back to where we were. That would not be possible without the way that our team has been working together, even just these past few months, and will continue to do until April.
