Pace Center to cut operating budget by 82 percent

Correction and editor's note appended

The operating budget for the Pace Center, which oversees several campus civic engagement initiatives, will be cut by 82 percent over the course of the next two years in light of the economic recession.

As the University prepares for a projected 30 percent loss in the value of its endowment by the end of this fiscal year, the Pace Center’s current $413,619 operating budget will be cut to $158,930 for the 2010 fiscal year and then to $74,088 for the 2011 fiscal year, Pace Center Director Kiki Jamieson said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian.

The operating budget does not include endowed funds — which account for more than 60 percent of the center's overall budget — and it will be cut by only 8 percent each of the next two years.

While the center struggles to weather such severe cuts, those it aims to help in the local community are similarly finding themselves in financial distress, Jamieson noted.

“All of us at the Pace Center understand the need for everyone to do our part in helping the University respond to the difficult financial climate,” she explained. “At the same time, we want to maintain our capacity to help Princeton students participate in helping others — especially those facing increased challenges due to the economic downturn.”

In addition to overseeing Community House and the Student Volunteers Council (SVC), 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.

None of these programs will remain untouched, as budget cutbacks will affect all aspects of the center’s programs and operations, Jamieson said, adding that the center’s administrators are currently in the process of deciding how to adjust their budget.

“I want to stress that no final decisions have been made,” she said, explaining that no matter how the reduced funds are allocated, “the Pace Center will be a different place in the future.”

Still, the repercussions of the budget cuts may not be entirely negative, Jamieson said. “In some cases, we may find unexpected benefits in reevaluating how we spend money,” she explained. The Pace Center will hold a lunch discussion May 8 to discuss the future of the organization.

As it prepares to implement these substantial budget cuts, the Pace Center may also receive some financial support from the USG budget, since a recently revised referendum on next week’s ballot will propose 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.

Originally, the referendum only allowed students to vote on whether they wished to allocate USG funding to Annual Giving, but the Senate later revised it in response to student concerns to also include the Pace Center. Any USG money allocated to events coordinated by the Pace Center would also support Community House and the SVC, Pace Center Communications Manager Catherine Kerr noted.

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“We’re touched by the inclusion of service projects in the referendum as an expression of support for the Princeton students who participate in our programs and for those they serve in the wider community,” Kerr said in an e-mail.

The revised referendum poses two questions. The first asks students whether they would like to reallocate the $60,000 fall social budget and any leftover spring social funds either to Annual Giving or to the Pace Center, or not at all.

The second question offers students the same choices for reallocating $20,000 of the roughly $27,000 Senate Pilot Projects budget.

Members of the SVC executive board encouraged students “to consider the future of civic engagement and service” when casting their votes for the USG referendum, the board said in e-mail to The Daily Princetonian.

“For the first time, we have a say in prioritizing our student government’s funding, and although we support the noble cause of Annual Giving, we believe this is the ideal time to create more opportunities for students to address the needs of the ever-desperate community outside of the ivory tower,” the SVC board said.

The board added, “So, before we jump to ‘save’ Lawnparties, we should ask ourselves: Is it worth $60,000 to enjoy one afternoon of concerts at the expense of our community and our civically-engaged students?”

Correction

An earlier version of this article stated that the Pace Center budget would be cut by 83 percent. In fact, the center's operating budget will be cut by 82 percent over the next two years. The operating budget does not include endowed funds, which account for more than 60 percent of the center's overall budget and will be cut by only 8 percent each of the next two years.

That version of the article also used rounded figures, which have been replaced with exact figures.

Editor's note

Since publication, Jamieson has retracted many of the statements made in this article. Please see the latest update on the Pace Center budget cuts for more recent information.