By Steve Babcock

University officials presented the proposed 2003-04 budget to the Student Government Association during a Joint Senate Meeting Monday.

The budget was met with a fanfare of questions concerning semester conversion, as the SGA’s main emphasis this quarter has been put on preparing for the change.

One point brought up by a number of senators to the team of three of the university’s executives presenting the proposal was the idea of new academic advisors being made available to the students. SGA Vice President for Academic Affairs Andres Vargas questioned Provost Abdelal on the issue.

“It has been proven that this university does not have enough advisors for each student to see their advisor only once a year. How much room will the budget make for new advisors so every student can be served?” Vargas asked.

Provost Abdelal said that the budget provides for “one new advisor in each college.”

“To get through semester conversion,” Abdelal explained, “we have enabled the students to go through a certain amount of self-advising. We have also implemented two tiers of advising in each college, through departments and colleges, to help us get through this process.”

Senior Vice President of Administration and Finance Larry Mucciolo later added, “What we hope to do is simplify the system. The best system is one with no counselors as far as we are concerned.”

The SGA voted down legislation last week that would have made it mandatory for students to see their advisor once a year. If the resolution was passed as Vargas would have liked, Northeastern’s administration would have been held accountable for students that were not able to see them.

Tuition increase, which is the typical concern of students over the budget, will be 5.5 percent for next year, a figure lower than anticipated by SGA.

Vice President Mucciolo called the new tuition level “just below the median” of the other universities Northeastern competes with for students, like Boston University and Fordham University.

In response to several of the issues, SGA President Richard Schwabacher said that he was happy to see financial aid receive an increase.

When President Schwabacher and Vice President for Financial Affairs Michael Benson met with Northeastern President Richard Freeland about budget priorities from the students’ perspective, financial aid was their number one concern.

Under the budget, financial aid given by Northeastern, and not by the federal government will, be increased by seven percent from last year. According to Muciolo, approximately 75 percent of NU students will receive aid from the university in one form or another.

One action the budget takes which President Schwabacher is concerned with is grad students’ $1 million increase without receiving university housing.

“They’re showing the figures without doing anything,” Schwabacher said.

The issue of grad students receiving university housing has been an issue for some time with the SGA and Provost. One senator extensively questioned Provost Abdelal earlier in the meeting about why there is no on-campus housing for grad students.

“Grad students present several logistical problems that we feel the university is not prepared to deal with,” Abdelal said in response.