Despite last year’s budget cuts, the educational leadership and policy studies department was able to find assistantships on campus for all of its graduate students in student affairs.

There are more than 50 students accepted into the program.

Nancy Evans, director of ELPS, said the number of assistantships available varies every year, depending on the funds available throughout different offices on campus.

Jessica Haskins, administrative assistant in the ELPS department, said between October and January there were a few less openings than the program would have liked to see.

“We always had strong support from the vice president of Student Affairs Office, but some colleges were a little more cautious because they didn’t know what there budget was going to be,” Evans said.

Evans said the Academic Success Center and Multicultural Student Services ended up getting a little more money then they had originally planned and assistantships became available again.

“People were not wanting to overcommit,” Evans said. “They ended up having the money, and luckily the students interested made it in.”

Evans said it wasn’t until July or August that the program was able to really see how many assistantship opportunities were going to be open.

The program is taking applications through Jan. 1 and will continue interviewing until the end of February.

Evans said she isn’t sure how many assistantships will be available, but said the number probably won’t vary too much from last year.

She said she has spoken with Vice President Thomas Hill, who has said Student Services is confident it can maintain the assistantships, “but you can’t predict what the state is going to do.”