At their weekly meeting last night, the Undergraduate Student Government passed an emergency resolution asking administrators to sit down at the table to discuss ways to fund the recently cut victim advocate position within the Transformation Project.
Housed in the Women’s Center, the Transformation Project — which provides services for victims of sexual and domestic violence — was created four years ago as a fully-funded program at the University through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Office of Student Affairs stepped in and funded about 50 percent of the salary for the position when the government reduced the amount of the grant two years ago.
But with Student Affairs looking at as much as $1.2 million in cuts with the start of the fiscal year on July 1, 2005, the office can’t afford to help a program that has been denied the majority of its funding, said Edward Whipple, vice president of Student Affairs.
Although several USG senators spoke out against the resolution, At-Large Senator Niki Messmore who co-authored the resolution stressed that they are not asking the University for money, but asking them to work with students to find alternative solutions rather than cutting the job.
Chelsea Lambdin, an advocate with the county’s Sexual Assault Awareness for Empowerment program, emphasized the immediacy of finding a way to save the victim advocate’s job at the University.
“I think we have a great need for a victim advocate in this community,” she said. “Most sexual assaults occur between the ages of 18 and 24 and I think the need for it [advocacy] on campus is even greater.”
Messmore decided to draft tonight’s resolution after the cut was brought to her attention last week. She began by sending out e-mails and asked people their opinion on the loss of the position.
“Every reply that I received said that the loss would be detrimental to campus and that this is a very valuable resource to have at BGSU,” she said.
At-Large Senator Tony Wagener brought up the fact that the University will be suffering over the next few years due to budget cuts.
Rushing into writing legislation at the first sign of cuts is acting in haste, he said.
“Every department, every college will have to make sacrifices and things are just going to get worse,” Wagener said. “We need to sit down and see what’s happening budget wise.”
Dan Burke, an off-campus senator, said that although sacrifices would have to be made, this is one program that should not be sacrificed.
“I think if just one person a year benefits from the service, I think that’s one person that would have otherwise faced a really horrible situation alone,” he said.
The looming budget cuts at the University were debated throughout the meeting.
Sara Kaminski, USG vice-president, reiterated the fact that cuts will be made, but that USG is a representation of the student body and the needs of the University need to be prioritized.
The advocacy service typically sees about 100 individuals, the majority of them students, each year.
Other options are available to victims of sexual assault, but none are as effective as the victim advocate, Messmore said.
“The victim advocate is better informed about legal procedures, goes to the hospital, the police station and court with the victim,” she said. The next step in the process is to work with administration to keep the position on campus, Wright said.
Messmore has formed a group with other senators called Victims Advocate Longevity Efforts that will look into fundraising efforts to keep the advocate on campus. The group hopes to raise the almost $35,000 salary themselves. VALE will hold its first meeting tonight at 8 p.m. in the Union Theater.
Staff writer Kara Hull also contributed to this report.
