Budgeting Dynamics; Right Down the Middle

The sometimes nefarious relationship between HBCUs and finances is one littered with its fair share of bad blood that’s accumulated over the years. Whether it be proper housing conditions at Howard, student athletes just now being able to profit off of their name, image, and likeness, or budgeting being cut for departments around your local HBCUs, there’s always been an ongoing narrative and list of issues when it comes to finances at HBCUs.
At your very own Southern University for example, departments around the university have seen budget cuts take place over the summer, including the Office of Student Media itself.
Departments are funded by the student fees assessed by the university upon the payment or registration fees and tuition. While many departments are used to receiving a certain amount on funding per year, this summer saw the budgets of some departments cut in half as a result of financial decisions made by the university over the summer.
Upon further research with different department heads, it’s become apparent that these missing funds are being used to begin construction for the new student union that is expected to adorn Southern University’s visage in coming years .
Personally, I’m not against a new student union or the university investing in its future. My trepidation comes into play however when I consider the present of the university and the impact that these sudden actions have had on the different departments around campus.
Departments meticulously plan out their budget semesters in advance based off of funding from previous semesters and communication from Student & Academic Affairs in the student union. So at the eve of the Fall semester where Southern is set to reopen fully in the aftermath of COVID’s worst shot, suffice to say it’s a setback when half of the money that you were expecting to have at your disposal for a given semester was taken without prior warning.
These budget cuts may very well be towards a good cause for the future, but if you neglect to communicate with your departments and staff in the present, what standard is truly being set for how we do business here at the prestigious Southern University.
As a part of this vast network of departments working at the behest of the university, the only request that we at the Office of Student Media have is for transparency. We all want to achieve great things under the flag of the Southern Jaguars, but communication and mutual respect is an integral part of that struggle towards greatness, especially when it comes to the resources that we have at our disposal.