CUSG Leadership Lays Out Priorities at Semester Town Hall Kickoff
BOULDER – On Tuesday, Sept. 5, members of the University of Colorado Boulder Student Government, known to students as CUSG, convened in the Center for Academic Success and Excellence building. They conducted a “Taco Tuesday Town Hall”, named for the catered food provided by Chipotle and offered to attendees of the event. The purpose of the meeting was to give students a chance to meet their elected representatives, bring attention to student issues, and hear direct testimony from the leaders of each of the three governing branches about how the body functions and the interactions between their respective branches and individual roles.
The town hall was facilitated by moderator Isabella Hammond, who serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the CU Independent, and Cooper Baldwin, who serves as the Editor-in-Chief of The Bold. Baldwin and Hammond asked questions regarding the representatives’ priorities for the year ahead, their tangible impacts thus far and how students can get involved in their student government.
Legislative Council President, Elisabeth Craig, emphasized her goals of increasing transparency in regards to spending and increasing engagement between the student body at large and CUSG in her coming term, as well as ensuring students “are being represented and respected really well in the community.”
Craig explained her plans to represent students in external community spaces such as the Boulder City Council, meetings with the city manager’s office, and other state/local elected officials. Other representatives chimed in with their goals to expand the Center for Student Involvement, increase CUSG’s accessibility through social media outreach, and foster connection between the three branches of the student government.
When asked about what tangible impact they have had on student life so far, the newly elected representatives referenced their progress on supporting legislation that supports students who rely on financial aid, as well as expanding free menstrual supplies on campus, an ambitious legislative initiative made reality by the passage 98 LCB 03, A Bill to Provide Free and Subsidized Emergency Contraceptives to University of Colorado Boulder Students, on March 9, 2023, as part of the 98th Legislative Session. Craig, serving in the 98th Legislative Session as a representative-at-large, co-authored the bill with CMCI Senator Gabbie Burton, and enthusiastically championed its passage, citing a mandate to act based on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022. The Dobbs decision, which upended the longstanding precedent of a woman’s right to abortion established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, called into question the legal protection of access to contraceptives, evoking widespread public outcry, fear and fervor across the United States.
In her new position as Legislative Council President, Craig hopes to expand upon the free-of-charge, no-questions-asked provision of contraceptives to fee-paying CU Boulder students.
“So there’s a lot of good ways to make tangible change on campus by being involved in this organization,” Craig said about the subsidized contraceptives program, in reference to a question asked about the noticeable, everyday impacts of CUSG on student life at CU Boulder.
Leaders from both the executive and legislative branches touted their past legislative achievements, with examples of such actions being Legislative Council Chief of Staff Kelly Clingan spearheading the introduction of self-defense classes at Williams Village, the funding of new equipment purchases at the Student Recreation Center, support of the Volunteer Resource Center, and advocacy for student interests within the university’s leadership.
External Tri-Executive Chase Cromwell went into detail about CUSG’s duty in creating, implementing and directing the budgeting of student fees, a role enshrined in Article III of the CU Student Government Constitution, aptly named the Student Fee Policy.
“As of today, when tuition was due, you just gave us $302.80 for the semester, and a big goal for us is to better explain what we do with that money. Because that turns into $34 million that this group of people and a handful of other students get to decide where that goes,” Cromwell said to freshman students in the audience.
The generation of this fund is provided primarily by the mandatory Student Activity Fee collected from each student per semester, which is around $300 for most of the 36,000 students at CU Boulder. The projected Student Activity Fee Revenue for fiscal year 2023-2024 is $26.2 million, with an additional $4 million self-generated by cost centers, such as the Student Recreation Center and the Cultural Events Board, in the form of ticket sales, among other fees.
“We will make sure that you can go online, you can access us individually as people, us as an organization, and understand that that money goes to the Rec Center and the UMC, and that you’re provided services that you may know about, the Rec, you’re provided services that you may know about, like student legal services,” Cromwell explained, emphasizing a culture of transparency.
However, despite the optimistic tone echoed by the leaders, the body faces a troubling reality in the form of a $2.8 million budget deficit this year. The spending and expenses budget ratified by CUSG in March 2023 for the 2023-2024 school year totals an amount of approximately $33.4 million, exceeding the $30.6 million revenue that the body projected themselves to receive this year.
Both the executive and legislative branches are tasked with administration and management of the budget and the elected leaders of the branches will face a difficult challenge in navigating the sizable deficit and subsequent depletion of reserve funds used to make up the difference in revenue and expenses.
Such a deficit is projected to take two to three years to recover from and reserve fund spending will continue to be the norm until the recovery is complete, which is subject to many variables, such as student enrollment increases/declines, and the willingness of the Board of Regents and the Chancellor to permit the discrepancies to continue.
Tension around the budget has reached a fever pitch in years past, with the most notable example being Chancellor Philip DiStefano’s decision to cut CUSG’s financial management responsibilities by 90%, from nearly $23 million to $1.9 million, in April 2018. The decision was swiftly met with condemnation from CUSG leaders and was reversed shortly thereafter, following a renewed effort of collaboration between the two institutions and their representatives.
The leaders continued answering questions both from the moderators and the audience, and encouraged students to get involved in student government, explaining that the application processes vary by branch, but the most traditional jobs for students are in the community executive branch. Tri-Executive Cromwell discussed how the application and interview process is intended to find students a role they are well suited for and characterized the experience as “laid back.”
While most of the conversation revolved around the larger executive and legislative branches, Chief Justice Arnav Seth invited students to utilize the accessibility of his and his fellow colleagues, stating that “Anyone is able to file a case,” referencing the Appellate Court’s service of the student body.
“If you have a question about something or you have a comment, or anything like that, you can just step in and ask that off the record,” Seth said, emphasizing the judicial branch’s role in the structure of the government and his own personal goal of increased exposure and transparency.
With myriad duties, concerns and aspirations on the minds of the CUSG representatives, the new year poses a great chance for effecting change, bringing about innovation and improving the life of CU Boulder students. The CU Student Government will continue to convene publicly on a weekly basis and, as an institution, has extended an invitation for all students to participate in their student government through channels of accessible communication and collaboration.
The Bold will continue coverage of the CU Student Government throughout the entire year and will provide timely, impartial, and comprehensive reporting on all matters concerning the student body at large.
