One person is out of a job after the Government of the Student Body Senate decided not to renew the office contract for Off Campus and Adult Student Services – and budget cuts are to blame, officials said.

The office was co-funded by the Dean of Students office and GSB. The Dean of Students office decided it would not renew the contract because of budget cuts in the office. The contract is due to expire Sept. 30.

The secretary who currently oversees the office and maintains the Web page and data bases will be laid off, said GSB President Andy Tofilon.

“If we had the funds, we would have continued the office,” said Pete Englin, interim Dean of Students. “It’s a valued service.”

The Dean of Students office will spend the next month or two evaluating the situation. The office will fund the secretary’s position through that point or until she finds a new position, Englin said.

GSB will meet next Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in the GSB office to brainstorm ways to provide services for off campus and adult students, Tofilon said. Many of the services currently provided by OCASS will be picked up by community members, he said.

Ideas will be collected and a bill will be brought before the senate on ways GSB can help off-campus and adult students, Tofilon said. In the meantime, the bill reallocating funds to OCASS was postponed until a new direction for the office can be outlined, he said.

OCASS is the latest casualty in the growing list of university departments affected by the state’s budget cuts. ISU President Gregory Geoffroy spoke with the senate, calling for students to help with the cause.

“An undue share of budget cuts is being put on state universities,” he said.

Of the $108-million in proposed budget cuts the governor announced last Thursday, $47 million will be cut from the regent universities, Geoffroy said.

Budget cuts are being blamed for larger class sizes and eliminated classes, staff and faculty, causing the need to hire temporary faculty and graduate students, he said.

The announcement of another $18.5-million cut last week by the governor brings the total ISU budget cuts for this semester to $42 million, he said.

“We are doing a better job of retaining students and we have a record enrollment,” Geoffroy said. “This causes us to have less money and cut faculty and staff, putting in jeopardy the quality of the university’s’ education.”

ISU administrators are asking legislators to look at other alternatives in their search to save the state money. ISU leaders are asking students to contact their local representatives, he said.

“We have more students on this campus than our budget can handle,” Geoffroy said. “Every student that walks into the door, we should help them to graduate.”