Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
On Monday, March 3, The Occidental Agency (TOA) announced that it had run out of printing money for the 2007-2008 school year. Although it can no longer fund printing for student clubs and organizations, TOA will continue to design posters and provide other services.
This school year, TOA designated $3,000 of its budget for printing. TOA Manager Ariana Tiziani (senior) said, “Our print policy mandates that we provide up to $50 worth of printing to student organizations. This policy, plus a high number of jobs, meant that we ran through the allotted $3000 quickly.”
Tiziani said that TOA’s services have become more popular over the past two years. As a result, last year’s TOA manager, Benjamin Nyberg ’07, raised the print budget from $2,500 to $3,000.
TOA predicted that even this $500 increase from the 2006-07 school year might not be enough. “While we were aware that we were likely to run out of money sometime in the spring, and while we made it clear that our print program was only available so long as we had the funds, our overall operating budget is too limited to put more money towards the print program,” Tiziani said.
She said TOA’s budget funds more than just printing, and that asking for more funding for printing could be detrimental to the organizations’ other operations. “If we felt sure that we could request funds from ASOC for the printing program without harming funding requests for equipment or other needs, we would certainly put forward a proposal,” Tiziani said.
Tiziani said TOA will be seeking more funds in the future. “TOA will certainly be requesting a larger budget for the 2008-09 school year specifically so that more money can be put toward the print program,” she said.
If students clubs and organizations need printing money for the spring semester, Tiziani said they should request emergency funding from ASOC.
“While we strongly believe in the print program-and will continue to maintain it so long as we have funds-design, not printing, is our top priority,” Tiziani said. “All the print money in the world would be useless without posters to print.”
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