The University Board requested $38,797.19 more from the Apportionment Board than last year.

However, the total request of $297,437.34 will be less than UB’s current budget of $310,662.15 that includes $52,022 in additional allocations throughout the year.

Almost all the UB coordinators were present in case AB members had questions about specific budgets within the allocation requests.

UB Chair Melissa Schaefer and vice chair Pat Lamorte presented the budget proposal.

The AMP magazine budget will decrease by $6,000 because staffing will be reduced and paid positions will be eliminated. The special events budget will increase by $19,600 for events such as “Up All Nite” and “Rush Hour.”

Special event programming this year included Family Weekend, outdoor movies and the Spring Fling. Schaefer said 839 students attended the February “Up All Nite: Chuck Vegas” event and 100 percent of the students said they would attend the event again.

Lamorte said the “Up All Nite” events have had increasing student participation and that the events are better known on campus than in past years.

An additional $5,510 would go into the comedy budget to hire a more well-known comedian to visit campus and to continue the vastly popular Last Comic Standing, Lamorte said.

The comedian is valued at $9,000.

Homecoming expenses will also be reduced to $20,235 from $25,585, and an additional $12,442 allocation; however, the lecture budget would increase $5,100 from last year to attract guest speakers such as C.L. Lindsay, Rob Corddry, Michael Showaler and Dr. Drew Pinksy.

Eric Wilber, AB member, said he was impressed at how concise and elaborate the budget was in comparison to the 2008 proposal that had money removed from the request.

AB also presented its budget to itself, asking only for an additional $600 for salaries.

Leah Pietraszewski, AB chairwoman, said all four budget proposals would be discussed at the March 20 meeting.

After discussion, if AB feels its budget, UB’s budget, Campus Recreation or Student Government’s budget request needs to be adjusted, then re-proposals will be heard on March 27.

If there are no budget concerns, voting will take place during the March 20 meeting.

Rick Kambic can be reached at 581-7942 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.

University Board chairperson Melissa Schaefer talks at Thursday night’s Apportionment Board meeting about how UB is cutting positions on their monthly magazine, AMP, because they felt some staff members were not doing their jobs. (John Bailey/The Daily Ea

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