We here at USM know that is the case when it comes to the Universities' budget. Who are these people that are making the financial decisions? What is guiding them? Why is the president of our university the former CEO of Central Maine Power and how is his experience guiding his decision making in an educational setting? Why won't he and his colleagues even look at all the work the faculty senate put in creating budget suggestions?
Students and faculty are more than willing to lend their input to figuring out the budget "crisis", unfortunately their ideas seem to have been dismissed. How might priorities shift if a diverse array of the students, faculty, community members, and administration were involved in the process? And furthermore, how much would faith in the process increase if participatory budgeting were enacted?
The first participatory budgeting project (PBP) began in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989. Since then PB has been implemented in many cities and municipalities across North America. Some school districts, colleges, and universities have practiced PB as well. If USM truly wants to be a "Metropolitan University", maybe PB would be a viable step toward that goal.
Real Money, Real Power: Participatory Budgeting
From the video above, you can see how participatory budgeting has worked in communities. It increases community involvement and engagement, invites those who are not normally able to participate in democracy a chance to do so, and clearly empowers community members. What they think truly does matter.
Here at USM we are currently engaged in budget cuts that no one but the administration seems to have any say in. Students, faculty and staff are not only stressed out, we feel powerless. Could PB work in a budget crisis? Could we put the cuts to a vote? It's worth a try. What's happening now doesn't seem to be working.
References:
Gallagher, N.K. (2014, October 9). Program, faculty cuts at USM headed for vote despite protests. Portland Press Herald. Retrieved from http://www.pressherald.com/2014/10/09/program-faculty-cuts-at-usm-headed-for-vote-despite-protests/
The Participatory Budgeting Project. (n.d.). History. In Who we are. Retrieved from http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/who-we-are/history/
The Participatory Budgeting Project. (2014, February 24). Real money, real power: Participatory budgeting [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSf8NOlqqUY
Weil, M., Reisch, M., & Ohmer, M.L. (2013). The handbook of community pragctice. Washington, DC: Sage.
Hi Sonya, this is a very powerful blog! You are absolutely right that the solutions could lie within our involvement. I really enjoyed the Participatory Budgeting video clip and feel that this is active engagement is critical in future democratic decisions within communities. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello Sonya! Awesome post :) I too wonder the same things as you about the budget cuts! Last year an emergency meeting was put on for all chair members of the entitities...at this meeting we decided that we would all cut our stipend checks 20% with the hopes to eliminate the 16 thousand deficit throughout the entities. The process was intense and frustrating for many of us considering that students who were not only at school but working had to cut their checks by a 1/5 of the amount. With the little amount of money we all make how can this be the answer? Hopefully, this year we can figure a plan to get our school back on track!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this blog it was very interesting. I completely agree with you when you talk about the new president being a former CEO of Central Maine Power and wondering what qualifications he has to be president of a university. It feels to me that they are only interested in making what they feel are good financial decisions instead of making decisions that are in the student and faculty's best interest. I think that the students and faculty's interests should be what is most important because they are what keeps the school in business.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this! I had no idea about the new president being the former CEO of central maine power. This was a really informative blog and things like this make me realize I need to be more involved.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
ReplyDeleteI think we should try PB at USM, it may just work...
Like every other company the people on top won't take less.