The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College, Fort Lewis College’s student body government, met for its weekly meeting in the senate chambers yesterday evening. The discussion this week ranged from budget cuts to a new act pertaining to student safety.   

Budget cuts and RSOs

This week, the ASFLC balanced recent issues in its discussion topics.

“I think in regards to the topics they are discussing tonight, they are critically important to the college and to the student body as a whole,” said Mark Mastalski, the advisor and director of the leadership center.

The ASFLC discussed the issue of budget cuts at its weekly meeting.

All Registered Student Organizations are cutting 10% of their budget in order to make up for a 6% decrease in enrollment, said Chloe Canterbury, Financial Allocation Board director for the ASFLC .

This action will cover the entire operating year, she said.

“Enrollment projections are down 6% and thus RSO allocations are underfunded and therefore RSO’s are taking a 10% cut from their budgets, and we’re taking a lot of money out of our rainy day fund to compensate for the lost money,” said Senator Alex Thompson via iMessage.

The unallocated fund will cover the rest of the cut at about $16,000, Canterbury said.

KDUR and WellPac have agreed to cut more of their budgets, and any amount over the 10% will be put into a rainy day fund, she said.

The ASFLC is not going to ask RSOs that have rollover funds to contribute more than their required 10%, Canterbury said.

Campus Safety and Accountability Act

Thompson wants the ASFLC to propose a resolution in support of the Campus Safety and Accountability Act.

The bill is being sponsored bipartisanly, with senators representing the bill on both sides of the aisle, Thompson said.

In short, the bill is tacking on amendments to the Higher Education Act, Thompson said.

Claire McCaskill, a democratic senator from Missouri, is the major sponsor for the bill, he said.

The ASFLC is worried about the CASA being an unfunded mandate because it requires a financial commitment to fulfill the goals of the bill.

The ASFLC proposes that in its resolution it suggest that the bill incorporate a funding aspect, to cover the costs that would placed on schools.

Additionally, the ASFLC is concerned about the chances of success for the bill.

“The bill has a fairly good chance of enactment,” Thompson said.

Title IX Comes to ASFLC

Molly Wieser, the judicial coordinator for FLC, came to the weekly meeting to discuss Title IX with the ASFLC.

Wieser discussed the history of Title IX and its purpose to correspond with gender discrimination.

Since 2011, Title IX has been used to encourage colleges to be more responsive to sexual violence, Wieser said.

FLC has recently been updating their policies in order for them to correspond with Title IX, she said.

“Things like sexual misconduct on campus are things that do affect campus as a whole,” Mastalski said.

All of these updates to policies are attempting to make the reporting process a less stressful experience for the victim, Wieser said.

“We are trying to change the culture to a reporting culture,” she said.

External Link

1. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/CampusSafetyandAccountabilityActBill.pdf  

2. https://www.notalone.gov/

Internal Link

1. http://www.theindyonline.com/News/ArtMID/17611/ArticleID/808948/Low-Enrollment-Means-RSO-Budget-Cuts.aspx

2. http://www.fortlewis.edu/eo/CollegePoliciesGrievanceProcedures/SexualMisconductPolicy.aspx