By Christina Martinez

On Jan. 24, at its first meeting of the semester, the ASLMU Senate voted on and approved a revised budget that cuts funding for in-person programs impacted by COVID-19 and redistributes them toward previously established projects.

As reported by AGENCY in November, ASLMU’s fall budget was approved under the assumption that the Spring 2021 semester would have in-person classes or at least run on a hybrid model, and ASLMU Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Isabella Ramin said that she had planned to reallocate portions of the budget elsewhere once LMU finalized their Spring instruction plans.

The approved budget proposal redistributes what remains of ASLMU’s $500,000 yearly budget toward different projects for the Spring 2021 semester.

$20,000 will be reallocated to the Menstrual Hygiene Initiative, which was launched in Jan. 2020. Prior to LMU’s shift to online learning in March, the ASLMU-funded pilot program placed period product dispensers in seven bathrooms on campus.

According to information released in the Spring 2020 semester, ASLMU’s original plan was to “conduct listening sessions and launch student surveys to collect data that will help secure funds for the second phase...a full-scale, university-funded free-product program.”

Ramin says that the increase will allow ASLMU’s program to cover more bathrooms on campus when LMU returns to in-person instruction.

“This initiative is very important to this year's administration, and we hope to expand it for when we are able to go back on campus,” she said.

Another $7,500 was appropriated towards the ASLMU Elections Committee. According to the ASLMU Elections LEO page, the duties of the committee are “to recruit candidates to run for the positions of President, Vice President and Senator [in ASLMU], as well as encourage the entire undergraduate community to vote.” 

According to Ramin, these new funds will be utilized for the Election Committee’s “rebranding and [Committee] member stipends.”

The Elections Committee will have 150% more funding than previously budgeted., The revised budget comes during the Elections Committee’s recruitment period; ASLMU is currently accepting applications for upcoming student government elections.

To account for these reallocations, cuts were made to general administrative costs, the Vice President’s discretionary fund, the Senate administrative fund, and overall student programming.

“The majority of funds were cut from [ASLMU’s] in-person events that were originally planned for the Spring Semester,” said Ramin, referring to past programs such as Waiting Out Traffic.

There were no budget cuts or increases to the other discretionary funds, salaries of paid ASLMU officers, or the Student Activity Fee Allocation Board (SAFAB).

A new summarized budget breakdown of all branches and initiatives of ASLMU was provided to the Senate at the Jan. 24 meeting as follows:

• Salaries & Wages - $53,500

• General Administration - $32,921

• President - $7,500

• Vice President - $10,000

• Chief Financial Officer - $150,500

• Chief Communications Officer - $500

• Chief Programming Officer - $188,829

• Cabinet Historic Initiatives - $43,000

• Senate Administration - $500

• Elections Committee - $12,500

• Judiciary - $250

We can love without fully making sense to each other.

my body, an unfamiliar language,

the way i move does not speak to you,

a language not made for you, my body not made for you.

my existence not yours to make sense of.

not yours to interpret.

not yours to understand.

we fear that which we do not know.

yet, you may not know my name,

but you know my body.

the language of human.

what my body does, what my body does not do,

does not need to make sense to you,

to still be a body.

what my language says, what my language does not say,

does not need to make sense to you

to still be a language.

to equate ‘understanding before’ to respect,

to equate ‘familiarity with’ to dignity,

is to violate my body, 

is to misinterpret my language into the sound of your comfort.

i do not owe you an explanation for who I choose to be.

i do not owe you access to my language.

ask yourself what gives you the right to fully understand me?

what gives you the self-entitled power to own my body?

own rights to my language?

me not giving you rights to my body, 

is not my body harming you.

me not giving you translations to my language, 

is not my language insulting you.

it is the truth that the interconnectedness of our humanity,

the interconnectedness of our language,

still powerful without fully making sense to each other.

the details of my sways, my steps, whose hands i hold, 

whose body my body rubs,

irrelevant to you,

yet not unimportant.

the details of my words for joy, my phrases for love, how i call myself,

my language for tomorrow,

not the same as yours,

yet not unimportant.

there is love in difference,

there is difference in love.

there is love in irrelevancy,

there is irrelevancy in love.

to believe you can only love what fully makes sense to you,

to believe you can only respect what first makes sense to you,

is to believe yourself as undeserving of love.

do you fully make sense to yourself?

there is this unintelligibility about love,

the ‘what words just can’t quite fully describe,’

the ‘i don’t have the words to explain it, but you…’

there is this ‘i don’t know’ in love.

do not fear this ‘i don’t need to know’ in love.

-\jolie brownell

By Aaron Padilla

In late November of 2020, a group called the Coalition of Jesuit Higher Education Workers and Students organized against austerity measures enacted by Jesuit universities hoping to ease the financial blow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coalition’s petition called for a moratorium on job and pay cuts, demanding that Jesuit universities “seek all other avenues of ‘fiscal solvency.’” The petition also advocated for staff and faculty oversight of budget decisions, greater budget transparency, a fair process for unionization, and to give faculty the choice of how they wish to work during the pandemic.

The petition additionally emphasized that the firing of such workers and faculty was in violation of the Jesuit value of “cura personalis,” which holds that Jesuits have a commitment to the nurturing and care of the spirit, intellect, and body. The Coalition extended the interpretation of “cura personalis” to mean that this care is extended to all students, workers, and faculty who make up Jesuit institutions.

The Provost’s office at LMU stated that austerity measures were taken to provide additional student aid in an email. 

“The [student aid] funding comes from budget reductions, employee furloughs, executive pay cuts, and other sacrifices made by faculty, staff, and administrators working around-the-clock to support our students through this pandemic,” the email read. 

Many ASLMU senators and body members including Vice President Elsie Mares, Speaker of the Senate Kyle Saavedra, Senator for Diversity and Inclusion Camile Orozco, and Senator at Large Sally Dean signed the petition.

Marquette University in Milwaukee received perhaps the harshest criticism among these Jesuit universities. According to Inside Higher Ed, the university laid off 225-300 faculty and staff in response to enrollment deficits and other financial shortcomings resulting from school closures. 

In an email to Inside Higher Ed, a Marquette spokesperson claimed that leadership pay cuts, 403(b) suspensions, and spending reductions were not sustainable for the university.

This response fueled mass in-person protests at the university by faculty and staff. Because of these protests, petitions, and widespread criticism, Marquette entered into labor negotiations with its workers. 

Other universities also faced fierce backlash, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is investigating Canisius College in Buffalo and threatened John Carroll University in Ohio with investigation if they enacted austerity-driven layoffs.

This pattern of austerity cuts and backlash from students and labor groups has continued as the pandemic drags on and universities endure further financial shortfall.

On Dec. 31, 2020, the University of Southern California (USC) laid off a large number of its janitorial and service employees, as well as several adjunct faculty. As a result, organized labor groups such as USC’s Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation (USC SCALE) organized in-person protests and drafted a petition in hopes that President Carol Folt would hear their demands.

President Folt responded to SCALE via email, citing financial troubles and cut revenue streams brought on by the pandemic to justify the recent wave of layoffs. Since the start of the pandemic, USC has reported an estimated $34 million in damages and lost revenue. In response, the university furloughed and later fired employees who worked in services that made up a large portion of its revenue, such as housing, retail, and janitorial and food services. 

Although the university claims that fired employees will return to work as soon as it is possible to do so and will receive the same benefits, labor groups at USC are suspicious of such claims, as many of the employees furloughed in late June were informed their contracts would expire on Dec. 31.

“In June, we informed the employees that the benefits program would expire on Dec. 31 if we were unable to return to normal campus operations. Even with six months’ notice, it is not a welcome situation,” President Folt wrote in an email to SCALE.

Stephanie Solis, a representative from USC SCALE, says that the university has been secretive and dismissive in its response to workers, faculty, and labor groups. Solis characterized Folt’s response as “generic,” delivering the same message with small alterations to all groups at risk of being laid off.

“Time and time again, throughout contract negotiations in the past, this has happened,” Solis said. “This shows its true colors, that it’s not looking out for its ‘Trojan Family’. Most workers are getting their healthcare cut off in the next couple of months, in the middle of a pandemic.”

The petition sent by USC SCALE posed alternatives to furloughing workers during the economic downturn. Signed by over 1900 students and faculty, the petition proposed liquidating assets from USC’s endowment fund, estimated to be worth nearly $5.7 billion.

In one of SCALE’s Instagram posts, SCALE highlighted the fact that the $34 million lost due to closed athletic facilities, postponed seasons, closed student housing, and closed student hospitality services is worth “less than 6/10 of 1% of the university’s endowment.”

The president’s office did not respond to Agency’s request for comment.