A campus-wide poll recorded 1,165 responses in which students requested university funds be concentrated on club sports, the creation of an airport shuttle and the addition of a coffeehouse on South Campus, a member of the Undergraduate Budget Priority Committee said Tuesday.
The number of responses is average compared to past years’, said Erik Neinstedt, UBPC chairman and Communication senior.
The poll, which closed on Monday, was online at the HereandNow web site for about a week. Students ranked their top five choices from a list of 15 based on a November brainstorming poll.
Students also want renovations to Norris University Center and a music downloading software, Neinstedt said.
The UBPC decides how the budget funds should be spent to best benefit students, Neinstedt said. UBPC will cut the 15 priorities listed on the poll to about 10 recommendations. Using the poll results as one advisory tool, UBPC will present recommendations to the full budget planning committee Thursday.
University President Henry Bienen, senior vice president for business and finance Eugene Sunshine, vice president for student affairs William Banis and Provost Lawrence Dumas are among the full committee’s members.
The UBPC will present the collected information and the poll results while discussing the budget proposal with administrators.
Bienen told The Daily Monday most of what undergraduates want are not “megabuck requests.” The university will try to spend the money sensibly and speak to real needs.
“I want to do things that people want, that I think make sense and that are affordable for us,” Bienen said.
He added he is held back by other budget requests so not all priorities can be met.
Although Communication junior Carrie Nieman’s first priority of accessibility was not listed in the top five, she said she is not disappointed. She voiced her opinion and that was enough, she said.
“As a working university, (accessibility) is one of the basic things we need to take care of,” Nieman said.
She said those who are pushing for a particular cause will find the funds somehow. The UBPC might choose to make accessibility a top priority at their meeting with officials.
Sunshine said he has met with UBPC several times. At each meeting, officials and the committee members were able to successfully bounce ideas off each other.
UBPC’s presentation of recommendations will not follow students’ poll responses exactly, Sunshine said.
“They make their own determinations based on all of their input,” he said.
Instead the committee will use the poll responses coupled with its own research, Neinstedt said.
“We use this poll as information for us,” Neinstedt said. “This poll does not directly correspond and become our priority ranking.”
Last year NU officials allocated $125,000 to replace equipment at two campus gyms, $100,000 for improvements to School of Music buildings, $15,000 annually for a “block party” event at the end of New Student Week and $10,000 to furnish a study area in University Library if students demonstrate interest.
The final decisions about funding will not be made until Spring Quarter.
Reach Ashima Singal [email protected].
