Due to the decrease in enrollment, budget cuts were made at last week’s six hour DASB Senate meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
De Anza College programs and organizations such as the Puente Project, Umoja Program, Euphrat Museum of Art, Student Success Center, Equity Office, CalWORKS, ICC, Math Performance Success Program, La Voz News, Athletics Program, HEFAS and the Honors Program presented in front of the DASB Senate to explain what their organization does and why it’s important for it to receive the funding it’s been getting, if not more.
Anisa Chaudhry, who spoke on behalf of the Jean Miller Resource Room along with Adriana Garcia, administrative assistant at the Office of Equity, asked the senate for more financial support in light of the recent hate crime.
“Why did that happen? It’s because of our culture, and that we didn’t properly take care of our LGBT students on campus,” Chaudhry said. “Right now it’s [Jean Miller Resource Room] a little office like a corner of this room. And that’s the LGBT resource on campus. And so where we’re putting out money, that’s what we’re telling our students, that that’s how we care for you.”
The senators approved using $2,000 from their summer and fall allocations to fund the Campus Wide Student Leadership Conference. Then they discussed whether or not to change the election schedule to fit the fiscal year, and voted to change the election schedule and have new senator training during spring quarter. They voted that the election schedule may be adjusted as necessary by the DASB Elections Committee, DASB Executive Advisory Committee, or DASB Senate.
Then the senators discussed the 2018-2019 budget for Fund 41 and Fund 46, both of which fund many programs and clubs on campus. Fund 41 gets its money from student registration, which
is why it’s been mostly affected by the enrollment decline.
The cuts the senators made included $1,000 from the their Winter/Spring Special Allocations, $1,000 from their Summer/Fall Special Allocations, $500 from the Marketing Committee, and $1000 from the Honors Program Student Payroll.

The senate then re-allocated these $3,500 in budget cuts in the form of $300 for DASB campus events, $1,000 for the Gender and Sexualities Center or Jean Miller Resource Room, $500 for the
Equity Office, $100 for Budget Committee supplies and $300 for the new student orientation. The remaining $1,300 was allocated to special allocations by adding $650 each to summer/ fall and winter/spring special allocations.
At the end of the meeting, Chaudhry, a student who works at the VIDA office and Jean Miller Resource Room, told the senators who did not say anything during the meeting that they had been
elected by students to make their voices heard.