UCC spared budget cuts

UCLA’s University Catholic Center has been spared from the
$4.2 million cuts from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The Archdiocese, representing 284 catholic parishes in Los
Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, will allay its budget
deficit by eliminating campus ministry services at six university
campuses.

Four CSU campuses ““ Northridge, Long Beach, Los Angeles
and Cal Poly Pomona ““ as well as CalTech, and University of
La Verne are among the campuses that will no longer offer campus
ministries to their catholic students as of Oct. 18.

“We are very thankful,” said Father Bob Sadowski,
director of the UCC.

Sadowski has been providing counseling and spiritual guidance to
the thousands of catholic students at UCLA for five years.

The UCC was saved, Sadowski believes, for two main reasons: UCLA
is the “flagship university” in Southern California,
and the recently completed construction of the new center on Gayley
Avenue.

The UCC, with the strong student and community attendance, has
remained a force on the UCLA campus.

The center offers not only spiritual ministries for UCLA’s
catholic students but also various activities like going to the
beach and movies, visiting homeless shelters, and taking a trip to
an orphanage in Tijuana.

Archdiocese representatives told campus ministers at a Sept. 10
meeting that cuts were made to deal with the stark economy and the
massive loss the Archdiocese suffered in stocks.

The meeting showed severity of the Archdiocese’s financial
deficit, said Laurie Oester, director of campus ministries at the
archdiocese.

Discussion centered on cuts and reductions of programs and
administrative layoffs.

But a total and drastic elimination of the ministries
themselves, like campus ministries came as a shock, Oester
said.

“Sometimes there is just a loss for words,” Oester
said. “Why they were cut I have no earthly idea.”

The Archdiocese has left employees of campus ministries on
various campuses in the dark on the reason for these eliminations,
Sadowski and Oester said.

“We knew there were going to be cuts, but not this
drastic. They never told me this,” Oester continued.

Sadowski is in the same darkness.

“I’m certainly baffled,” he said.

The Archdiocese has denied that cuts were made due to lawsuit
settlements. They did not return Daily Bruin’s phone
calls.

However, Oester said that there is probably a mixture of reasons
for the cuts, not simply negative returns from the market, but also
lawsuit settlements.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Oester said.

Because cuts have not been finalized, there is fear that
UCLA’s UCC will be at risk in the future.

“I’m concerned that in the next fiscal year there
will be cuts here,” Sadowski said. “But we’ve
developed a strong core of student leaders who will continue to
provide a very needed service.”

The UCC hopes that they will not go completely under should
times get worse.

The UCC provides Sunday service where the weekly collections
from patrons assist the UCC financially, leaving the Archdiocese
responsible only for staff salaries.

CSU campuses do not offer Sunday services, thus requiring funds
from the archdiocese for various programs ““ something the UCC
does not require.

Pat Boroughs, director of the Catholic Newman Ministries and a
campus minister at Cal State University of Northridge for the past
20 years, will be out of a job on Oct. 18 when the department
officially shuts down.

These cuts could have been avoided with proper planning,
Boroughs said.

“For me, the worst case scenario happened.”

Students at Cal State Northridge are currently looking for ways
to keep their campus ministry active.

Students have written letters to Cardinal Roger Mahony, the
archbishop of Los Angeles, in addition to a resolution passed by
the Associated Student Body Senate at Northridge to send a
recommendation to the archdiocese to reverse the judgement on
campus ministries said Rod Labuni, vice president of the CSUN
Newman Club.

The campus ministry, funded by the Archdiocese, has been a part
of the CSUN campus for 30 years. Students took the news with
disbelief.

“The archdiocese is turning their back on college students
by doing this,” Labuni said. “They are also being
contradictory by first saying how youths are going to be the future
of the church.”

There is no confirmation that Mahony will reinstate the
eliminated ministries, even if the budget sees happier days, Oester
said.

“To students, the campus ministry is like their home on
campus,” Oester said.

The Archdiocese assumes that displaced students will seek refuge
at local parishes, but Sadowski said that transition may be
impossible because “campus ministry is difficult and requires
full-time commitment of campus ministers who understand student
needs,” Sadowski said.

Keeping the faith is difficult enough for college students, and
this separation would make things more difficult, Labuni said.

“You can’t get the same experience at local churches
for college students,” he said.

Other ministries in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to be cut
include: the Office of Ministry with Persons with Disabilities,
Detention Ministry, Ethnic Group Ministry, Ministry with Lesbian
and Gay Catholics, and the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic
Women.

“I’m angry, but I’m not hating the
archdiocese,” Labuni said.