The only way that Environmental Science Major Jocelyn Orr found out about the $100,000 taken out of the Instructionally Related Activities reserves is via a sheet of paper handed to her by Associated Students President Sofia Pereira.
It was an executive memo from President Rollin Richmond. It gave four days notice to members of the Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) Committee, a committee that advises President Richmond on the IRA fund that is generated from student fees, that he was removing one-third of their reserves and placing it elsewhere.
All students that attend the CSU system pay into this IRA fee. Part of the Osprey Magazine is funded by IRA fees, and even part of the Calypso Concert that happened in the Van Duzer Theatre this past Saturday night was paid for with IRA fees.
Two years ago, the IRA fee split into different sections: a general IRA fee for funding things like field trips, the Humboldt State University Energy Independence Fund, Jack Pass fund, which allows students to ride local buses with a flash of their student ID card - and a fee set aside for the Athletics Department.
Out of the four sections under the IRA fee, Athletics receives $418 out of the $518 students pay into it. That is 80 percent that goes towards Athletics. The university works to keep some of the funds in reserve to be used at a later time if needed. President Rollin Richmond took out $100,000 out of the IRA reserves and gave it to Athletics.
The IRA Committee is a group of students and faculty who act as an advising board for President Richmond. The committee is also in charge of where the money from the IRA is to be allocated to.
Kale Roberts, an Environmental Science major and a member of the IRA Committee said that the reserve is also something of a “rainy-day” fund. “Every year we will allocate the money and there will be some left over,” he said.
This extra money goes into the reserves to be used at later times if needed - or for that rainy day. “This year, we needed a rainy-day fund with all of the budget cuts,” Roberts said. “So we had to spend a lot of the reserves.”
HSU’s Senior Communication’s Officer Paul Mann said the reason for taking money out of the reserves was straightforward. Academic Affairs reduced summer school enrollment so the Athletic IRA fell short. The Lumberjack attempted to speak with President Rollin Richmond about this topic, but he directed us to the HSU Communications Office.
Mann said Richmond could have taken the $100,000 from elsewhere, but doing so would have shortchanged classes and instruction. “He conferred with the vice president for business affairs and decided that the way to cover the deficit was with the transfer,” said Mann.
Orr, an environmental science major, is part of the IRA Committee, and says that her main concern is the lack of procedure and due process.
Roberts calls it a surprise and a disappointment that President Richmond took the money out of their reserves for the use of one program. “It isn’t spread as far and doesn’t benefit as many,” he said.
Orr said that even though the students went out and voted, saying how they wanted their campus to look, “Richmond, two weeks later, decided that wasn’t what was best for the campus.”
Orr said the time of the decision to split the IRA structure was a political time dwell, that it came at the end of an academic term and students were leaving and graduating. “The students spoke and said what they wanted our campus to look like. The president didn’t respect that.”
President Richmond isn’t bound by this committee or the students. The IRA committee also has no oversight over the Athletics, HEIF and Jack Pass IRA fees.
Richmond later apologized for taking the $100,000 out of the IRA reserves during a meeting with the committee. “He said he made a mistake, that he acted too quickly,” said Orr.
Taking money out of the reserves isn’t the only cause for concern for the IRA Committee. President Richmond has also proposed a two percent increase to the Athletic portion of the IRA fee each year. If passed, the two percent of the annual increase proposal would be implemented the fall of next year.
Roberts and Orr said that a problem that the IRA committee faces is with the two percent increase “profits” going to Athletics, it would be just as easy to say that they wanted a two percent increase as well for other parts of the IRA.
“It would be more fair to do it across the board,” said Roberts. “But it means that students will pay more money.”
Orr also questioned if that was what students would really want. “My concern is putting the burden on student’s backs more and more to pay for things,” said Orr. “We are shifting the responsibility for staff salaries from the university to student fee costs.”
Kara Merritt, an Environmental Science major calls the two percent increase proposal not cool. “Isn’t that why we pay taxes,” she asked. “We [as students] have other responsibilities than paying our teachers.”
Pereira said that Richmond’s explanation was that the money from fees that students pay now towards athletics doesn’t generate enough to pay for salary and benefits. Pereira went on to say that the increases are said to be based on bargaining between the athletics staff’s union and the Chancellor of the CSU system.
Pereia said that the policy of reserves will be addressed. “We are working on a reserve policy so that we don’t have a big pile of money waiting to be transferred.”
Orr said that she just wants the students to know what is going on and that she doesn’t have it out for the Athletics department. “I recognize that athletics brings in money and pushes forward the HSU image, and it does bring in students,” said Orr. “No matter what program, this is a red flag.”
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