Dean of Students Vivian Garay Santiago announced in a Feb. 13 email that “funding requests previously handled by Diversity and Equity Board (DEB) will now be reviewed by the ASOC Finance Committee.”
According to the statement, this decision was made after DEB decided not to reverse its previously announced boycott, inspired by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The email also states that the change was made “to reduce risk to the College and protect access to federal and other grant funding, and in accordance with the ASOC Operating Agreement.”
ASOC President Trisha Bhima said the college made the decision to have the ASOC Finance Committee review funding requests previously handled by DEB, and not ASOC.
Assistant Dean of Students and SLICE Director Marcus Rodriguez said the college came to this decision through consultation with the Office of General Counsel.
“All funding requests have always gone through the Finance Committee for initial review,” Rodriguez said via email.
DEB sent out a statement responding to the Dean of Students’ email and explaining the updates to their funding Feb. 20.
“Our funding guidelines were updated to reflect our values as a board which represents, defends, and uplifts marginalized students on this campus,” the statement said. “Senior leadership and General Counsel expressed concerns about the potential risk of losing federal funding on the grounds that our guidelines were discriminatory. DEB decided not to rescind its boycott statement […] as a result, all funding requests previously submitted to DEB will now be managed by the ASOC finance committee.”
Bhima said this change is uncharted territory for ASOC and the Finance Committee.
“I think it’s going to be particularly difficult to maintain the integrity of DEB’s mission in spending money from their budget without input from the entire Board,” Bhima said via email. “We don’t have any codified process for what this might look like, so there’s definitely a burden on the finance committee to figure out what that would look like.”
Nirmala Rusli, president of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Association (APIDAA), said APIDAA has already felt the effects of DEB no longer making funding decisions.
“We got rejected for half of our funding requests for Lunar New Year,” Rusli said. “We’ve submitted roughly a similar budget for the last five years, ever since we’ve had this event.”
According to Rusli, the club was told that ASOC’s general budget is lower this year, but APIDAA was not made aware of this until after they had submitted their requests. APIDAA had to use their club funds saved up from fundraisers over the past few years in order to cover the rest of the event expenses, leaving them without any backup funds left, Rusli said.
“When DEB’s funding got moved to the Finance Committee, and we got rejected from our funding, it seemed like those two things kind of line up,” Rusli said. “The group of students that are essentially moved into this power of advocating for students of color lost that ability, and very quickly, a club for people of color didn’t get the funding support that they usually get.”
Rusli said some of the ASOC funding approved for Lunar New Year was not distributed to the club until after the event was held, which has not happened in the past.
“We’ve reached out to our alumni network and other affinity clubs to start a conversation about increasing transparency that we think we all deserve,” Rusli said. “Given their situation, we’re not sure how DEB can help our club anymore.”
According to Bhima, DEB has always worked to ensure that equity and justice are not just values the colleges claims to hold, but principles that are actively practiced, along with protecting the voices of the students most impacted on campus.
“Apart from funding, one of DEB’s main functions is also to hold the college accountable to their Equity and Justice Mission, according to their bylaws,” Bhima said via email. “In the past and currently, this has looked like hosting listening sessions for students across campus, advocating for students who are not adequately supported by financial aid, providing support and hosting appreciation events for staff on campus (including Campus Dining workers, residential custodial staff) and providing recommendations to the College pertaining to diversity and equity.”
Rodriguez said individual and club funding will continue, without disruption, through the Finance Committee, and events like POC Formal will not be affected.
“The POC Formal is a special line item in the ASOC Budget,” Rodriguez said via email. “The Executive Committee allocates that funding annually when it passes the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.”
According to DEB’s Feb. 20 statement, DEB was “founded as a result of the 2015 AGC occupation organized by CODE (Coalition at Oxy for Diversity and Equity) and Oxy United for Black Liberation in response to anti-black racism and a need for better representation of marginalized groups on campus.” In the statement, DEB encouraged students to read their disorientation guide.
“As a Board, DEB strives to hold Occidental College administration accountable to its mission with integrity and transparency,” DEB’s statement said. “We are still committed to upholding this principle, and we are still committed to supporting our campus community by working on initiatives to uplift the larger Occidental community.”
Contact Ava LaLonde at lalonde@oxy.edu
