The ASI Business and Finance (B&F) Committee is proposing a budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year that reduces funding for scholarships for undocumented and Indigenous students by a combined $50,000, according to a preliminary budget report sent to Mustang News by Ethnic Studies Department Chair Dr. Jenell Navarro.
The ASI Dreamers and ASI Indigenous People scholarships would each see a $25,000 cut. Students like ethnic studies junior Chloe Siva rely on these scholarships to cover educational expenses.
“Without that scholarship, I would have had to take even more loans out because I relied on it,” Siva said. “Decreasing it makes it so [ASI] can only award it to a couple students and makes it seem like they don’t want to see [Indigenous students] succeed on this campus.”
Each year, the B&F Committee plans and creates a recommended budget for the ASI Board of Directors to workshop and officially approve for the following year. The preliminary fiscal year 2024-25 budget states the scholarships are being decreased by 83% to “allocate additional funding to enable further student government programming efforts.”
The B&F Committee will vote to officially recommend a preliminary budget to the Board on Monday. The first 15 minutes of B&F meetings are open forum for the public to share comments and written comment can be sent to asivicechairofboard@calpoly.edu.
The ASI budget is funded through required student fees paid each quarter. Every Cal Poly student paid $416.19 to support ASI during the 2023 fall quarter.
The preliminary budget also includes a $13,500 budget increase to support professional development opportunities for Board members. Funding for student government travel expenses to the Cal State Student Association and next year’s ASI elections expenses fund are expected to each receive an additional $10,000, based on the preliminary budget.
Siva, who belongs to the Cahuilla and the Luiseño tribes of Southern California, is disappointed to see the scholarship funding reallocated to things like ASI events and the alumni relations fund, which will increase to $899,474 and $4,500, respectively.
“If they’re not willing to fund us here, it makes it seem like they don’t see us as possible alumni,” Siva said. “The Native American and Indigenous communities are some of the most underrepresented and underserved in the US. The vast majority of us are low income.”
Liberal studies senior Lezly Barriga visits the Dream Center for undocumented students in support of friends who are DACA recipients.
“For [ASI] to not prioritize [the scholarship] definitely it catches me off guard,” Barriga said. “[DACA students] want to feel confident in the fact that they are going to be getting supported.”
One of ASI’s goals for the year is to create the most impact for the largest number of students, according to B&F Committee Member and Chair of the ASI Board of Directors Siddarth Kartha.
“We tried focusing our funding along similar lines,” he said.
The annual budget’s first draft is prepared by the Chair of the University Union Advisory Board (UUAB), according to current ASI President Sam Andrews. This year’s UUAB Chair is industrial engineering senior Aaron Fernandes.
Fernandes told Mustang News that ASI Officers met with the affected cultural centers Thursday and are “working to formalize plans to reallocate funds to the two scholarships serving their students.” He also emphasized that the budget is not final until the Board officially votes.
Fernandes has a history of deprioritizing DEI initiatives, according to a student in ASI student government who requested anonymity due to retaliation concerns.
“From what I’ve been told, it seems like a lot of this work is being done by [Fernandes],” the student government official said.
Previously this year, Fernandes “decided that they wanted to strike the Diversity and Inclusion Committee because they felt like it wasn’t effective in the work that it was doing,” the ASI student government official said.
Navarro echoed similar concerns to Mustang News that decreasing the ASI Dreamers and ASI Indigenous People’s scholarships would greatly affect the future recipients of the funds. Navarro said that the scholarships go beyond affording the college experience, enabling students to cover housing and avoid the burden of choosing between family and education.
“Fernandes is advocating that both of these scholarships be decreased,” Navarro said. “[He also] put forward a motion to dismantle the [Diversity and Inclusion Committee]. Thankfully, that motion did not get a second and it was unanimously rejected.”
The Board of Directors will discuss the recommended budget at workshops and meetings following B&F’s approval. The board will officially approve the ASI fiscal year 2024-25 budget on May 8, according to Kartha.
According to B&F Committee meeting minutes, voting members consist of:
- Andrews
- Kartha
- Fernandes
- B&F Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Board Sujanya Srinath
- Board Representative Alexis Kong
- Board Representative Ashleigh Spragins
- UUAB Representative Ryan Hofmann
According to a Thursday night email from Andrews, three ASI members unanimously decided to amend the proposed budget. Those involved in the meeting included Fernandes, Kartha and Andrews. The amended budget recommendation will take place at the Monday meeting.
“This amendment would restore both scholarships allocated funds in full to the amounts that were outlined in this academic year’s budget,” Andrews wrote.
Siva, who has similarly expressed disappointment in the proposed budget cuts, said cutting scholarships for students like her contradicts university messages and commitments to these communities.
“We have a land acknowledgment,” Siva said. ‘“We’ve worked with the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash tribe. We have the yak titʸu titʸu residential community and we have the Native American Indigenous Cultural Center. Why don’t they work with the students that are here?”
Update, April 28: This article was updated to provide the new Instagram post from the Native American and Indigenous Cultural Center on the ASI budget.