Pace Center director retracts budget info

“No University administrator except me ever proposed or contemplated the cuts that were described in the previous article about the Pace budget cuts,” Jamieson said, referring to an article in Friday’s ‘Prince.’ “Those cuts are inconsistent with University policy. The authority to make the cuts actually lies outside my office.”

In the e-mail interview she gave last Wednesday, Jamieson said she “intended to explain that the University overall is reducing spending from endowed funds by 8 percent” during each of the next two years and reducing spending from budgets not supported by endowed funds by 7.5 percent over the same time period.

“The Pace Center’s current annual budget is more than $1 million … and even after consecutive 8 [percent] reductions over the next two years, our income from endowed funds would be greater than it was just three years ago,” she added.

Jamieson said employees at the center are “working hard to be strategic about cutting spending in ways that minimize the impact on our mission of providing high-quality civic engagement opportunities for Princeton students.”

“I did not intend to suggest the Pace Center or its programs have been singled out for cuts, and I believe the University community is best served by an accurate depiction of the situation we all face,” Jamieson said. “We’re looking into every possible savings, yet no final decisions have been made at this time.”

The news comes as students prepare to vote this week on a referendum that will ask students whether they support reallocating some of the USG’s social and Senate projects budgets to the Pace Center as well as or instead of the Annual Giving fund.

Budget cut retraction

In her e-mail on Wednesday, Jamieson said the Pace Center’s current $413,619 operating budget would be cut to $158,930 for the 2010 fiscal year and then to $74,088 for the 2011 fiscal year.

“Obviously, those are dramatic cutbacks,” Jamieson said at the time. “[This is] not because Pace has been singled out for cuts, but because close to 75 percent of the Center’s income is from investments.”

In addition to overseeing Community House and the Student Volunteers Council, the Pace Center coordinates initiatives including the week-long Breakout civic action trips for students over academic breaks, a student council on civic values dedicated to promoting civic awareness on campus and several summer internships and postgraduate fellowships enabling students to contribute to public service organizations and communities around the world.

The center also hosts two programs for students to volunteer at New Jersey prisons: Princeton Project Inside and the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program.