October 31, 2024
DSU President, Ethel Sakyi, discusses the events that led up to the decision to pause all programing.
Student unions play a large role in the college experience, especially at Winthrop, which is why students were sent into a frenzy over DSU’s decision to cancel all of their activities for the time being.
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, DSU released a statement on their Instagram announcing that the student union would be entering a period of hiatus. The post includes multiple reasons behind the decision, with budget cuts being the primary reason.
“This summer, the DSU Executive Board was informed by the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs that a decision had been made to significantly cut our budget. The cuts were attributed to deficits caused by WuChella and have drastically impacted our operations. In August, we formally requested an action plan to address the cuts and mitigate their effects. However, despite our repeated efforts to engage in meaningful dialogue, we have yet to receive a response, creating a challenging and, at times, hostile working environment,” the post reads.
The news came as a shock to the student body here at Winthrop, especially since DSU just hosted DragWu on Oct. 18.
Since the announcement, most students and alumni are supportive of DSU’s decision. However, a good portion of students also expressed their disappointment in the announcement.
Due to the confusion surrounding DSU’s hiatus, DSU President Ethel Sakyi decided to sit down with Student Publications and provide more in depth information regarding the decision.
Ethel said the rift between DSU and the Student Affairs office “started over the summer [while] I was away on vacation, and I got an email telling me that there’s going to be some changes with the board, and our budget has been severely cut.”
Like the Instagram post said, the cuts were largely attributed to WuChella.
WuChella was a DSU hosted event during the second semester of the 2023-24 school year to celebrate the end of the year. The event featured food vendors, novelties and musical performances, with the most notable one being rapper DDG.
Many students, including Sakyi, saw WuChella as a disappointment due to the high prices and DDG’s performance.
“I was informed that we had gone over budget with WuChella [and] seeing that we put a lot of investment into it, and the outcome wasn’t really the best or what we hoped for, so that caused a very huge deficit on our account,” Sakyi said.
Despite all this, Sakyi was not even mad about the budget cuts. In fact, she completely understood why the cuts needed to be made.
“Initially, we thought, okay, so they’re cutting our budget. Fair enough. If you go over budget and they’re trying to bring you back to balance then of course there’s going to be some changes. So fair enough,” Sakyi said.
One of the major reasons for the budget cuts was the cost for DDG to perform on campus. Sakyi claimed that “DSU cannot operate without [Burkhalter’s] approval on events and on artists or anything, essentially. So we sent it for approval, and the contract was signed. So we assumed it was approved.”
DDG was scheduled to perform an hour-long set, but only performed for around 15-25 minutes.
The decision to announce the budget cuts over email frustrated Sakyi and the other leaders at DSU, as they wanted to have an in person meeting with the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs. They felt blindsided by the email, especially since it came in over the summer.
Despite all this, Sakyi and crew kept pushing and hosting events for students, including cooking meals for volunteers with DSU Vice President Ayden Lowman and hosting Welcome Week.
Welcome Week is Winthrop’s official “kick-off to the academic year” according to Winthrop’s website. The week includes Convocation, open-houses, the Blue Line and the overall start of classes.
However, when it came to Welcome Week this year, Sakyi viewed it as “in shambles.”
“Two events, when Welcome Week is usually nine, was very crazy. They’re telling us Winthrop traditions that we can’t keep up with anymore and we might have to see some of our events that have become Winthrop traditions go because we can’t afford them anymore,” said Sakyi.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for DSU was the recent DragWU. Sakyi claimed that they did not think they were going to be able to host DragWU this year because they did not get the approval for DragWU until “it was in the very late stages.”
This lack of communication from their superiors and the people who supply their budget was the final straw for DSU leadership, thus making the decision to halt all activities for the time being.
Sakyi maintains that all DSU events must be approved by their higher ups, the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs and the Dean of Students.
“So again, like I said, we cannot approve anything, so we usually have to go to the Dean of Students for them to sign off on stuff. And so sometimes, when we’re getting an act, we need, like a contract, and we need them to sign it for us,” Sakyi said. “And we go, and it’s one story after the other, a new policy every day why they can’t sign your contract. I would appreciate [it] if they could be more honest with us concerning this event – maybe just be honest with us.”
After the announcement, students took to the social media app YikYak to express their displeasure, which especially frustrated Sakyi.
“It’s important that I am able to stand up for my people because Winthrop belongs to the students, and this whole YikYak thing, it’s disappointing – very, very disappointing,” said Sakyi.
She continued, “We’re the ones working with them. We know what we’re going through. So when we’re telling you that these are the things that we’re going through, you need to believe us, or you need to come to us, talk to us, ask us questions, and you’re going to understand that, okay, these people are actually dealing with things.”
YikYak is a social media app that allows people to post anonymously, which can lead to particularly nasty and untrue comments.
One user said in regards to the decision, “WuChella was such a bust last year. I’d cut their budget too.”
Another anonymous user said, “They wasted their budget on an event that hasn’t been successful in the past and got upset when they couldn’t get more money and are now throwing a fit and taking away all their homecoming events.”
Katherine Light, a senior social work major at Winthrop, was kind enough to share her thoughts on the matter – without remaining anonymous.
“It is really unfortunate that funding for DSU was cut, but considering they’ve known about it since the start of the semester, I would assume they would have spaced out the budget they had to last through the fall semester. I am not sure why the student body is just now getting a statement about it,” Light said.
She continued with, “However, I do recognize that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of any organization, and it isn’t always feasible or efficient for everyone to know all the minute details. While it’s sad that this has happened, I appreciate their transparency. I know so many students are upset by this news and are wanting to know how they can help support DSU.”
Sakyi said a meeting is scheduled for DSU leadership and the Office of Student Affairs, but this is after multiple attempts fell through, according to her.
