One small miscalculation will cost the Graduate Student Organization more than $85,000 in budget cuts during the next two years.

After the GSO comptroller in 2011 overestimated the amount of money the organization would receive, the group has had to cut funding for graduate student benefits, including graduate student discounts at the Inn Complete on South Campus and various daycare centers, said Patrick Neary, GSO president.

One of the graduate student recreational programs being cut by GSO is discounted access to the Drumlins Country Club, Neary said. He added that GSO used to pay the country club $40,000 a year to use its golf and tennis facilities, which added up to about 10-12 percent of the organization’s yearly budget.

But after finding out only about 20-25 students were actually using the tennis courts at the country club, Neary and the GSO Finance Committee determined they were spending $800-$1,000 per student to use the country club’s tennis facilities with a subsidized day pass — a cost he said was more expensive than buying an actual membership. After getting together a committee and putting the decision to a senate vote, GSO decided to cut funding for the Drumlins Country Club.

“We discovered it was not fiscally responsible to continue supporting Drumlins in order to maintain that kind of staffing,” Neary said. “The costs did not match the benefits.”

Ajay Pawar, a graduate student who’s played tennis at Syracuse University for the last couple of years, said the situation is “very unfair” and unfortunate for tennis enthusiasts.

“We have indoor facilities for all the other sports, but we don’t have one for tennis,” said Pawar, who is studying public administration. “The GSO should’ve considered that.”

Neary said GSO attempted to negotiate with the Drumlins Country Club management to lower the costs, but could not reach an agreement. But Douglas Freeman, managing director of the Drumlins Country Club, said he was notified of GSO’s budget cuts without a request for renegotiation. He said graduate students were a steady percentage of the population at the country club, and hopes a deal can be reached in the future.

To replace the loss of the Drumlins golf course, GSO has made a deal for subsidized $10 passes to New York state parks for graduate students, which he said was met with positive responses: more than 300 have been given out so far.

Neary said while the number of graduate students who played golf was high, there was a low turnout of tennis players — which has made it difficult to find a replacement venue for tennis facilities.

He said GSO reached out to almost all of the indoor tennis facilities around Syracuse, but said he does not see a solution in the near future.

“I’m very sorry we have not been able to find a replacement for the tennis facility at Drumlins,” Neary said. “Because of the usage numbers from Drumlins, we don’t really represent much business.”

Published on November 5, 2013 at 1:10 am

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