There are two desks in the Night Owls office. One is cluttered with papers and used every day, and the other mostly collects dust.

Since Night Owls had their budget trimmed $50,000 last year, they can’t afford two dispatchers working during one shift.

“We planned for two desks, because ideally we wanted two dispatchers at night,” Night Owls Director David Quant says. “Right now, we only have one dispatcher working at a time, and sometimes people complain because they can’t get through the line. If another student calls while the dispatch is already on the phone, they just have to wait.”

After already having their budget reduced last year, Night Owls, a service that provides golf cart rides at night so students can get around campus safely, might get cut another $40,000 this upcoming school year. (See graph at right for more information.)

Since they’re funded by students and there are less Activity and Service (A&S) fees to go around, Night Owls might have less funding. (See previous page for more information.)

Another reason, according to SG Adviser Rivka Felsher, is that students were complaining they couldn’t get through to dispatchers and had to wait 45 minutes to an hour before Night Owls picked them up.

“There were complaints that Night Owls were goofing off and driving friends around,” Felsher says.

However, Quant says they had fewer drivers to work with this past year and that contributed to the extended wait times.

As for the “goofing off,” Quant says those were isolated incidents and that he spoke to the staff afterward about it.

Last year, 82 percent of Night Owls’ funding went toward salaries, meaning that most of their cuts this year will involve reduced services such as hours of operation. Last summer, Night Owls also worked on weekends, but this summer they’re only open Monday through Thursday, three full nights less.

“The reduced staff won’t affect us in the summer, when fewer students are on campus,” Quant says. “But it will in the fall, when campus is more crowded.”

But according to SG Vice President Ed Fulton, who cut the Night Owls program on the Jupiter campus last year, the service staff behaves unprofessionally. Fulton decided to be a night owl for a night on the Jupiter campus but found the job “mind-numbingly boring.”

“When you put 20-somethings in that situation, it’s conducive to misbehavior,” Fulton says.

Although Night Owls is feeling a burn from budget cuts, this didn’t stop other student organizations like the Peer Educators program from getting a $5,000 budget increase this upcoming school year from A&S fees.

Peer Educators are a trained team of volunteer students in the Today and Beyond Wellness department that promote sexual health at FAU through campus-wide events.

“[The Boca budget committee] thought that the Peer Educators had a broad-based education system,” Felsher says. “The value that they add to each student’s health is important.”

Peer Educators used to receive money from a Student Affairs grant, but that stopped last July, so the Boca budget committee gave them an increase of A&S fees.

“We felt that they should get their full budget,” says Boca Budget Committee Chairwoman Marni Sherman. “So we gave it to them because they deserve it.”

One solution for Night Owls is to hire more volunteers for the service. “Night Owls is a great service,” Felsher says. “But they can do more. It takes a volunteer to really go above and beyond.”

But Quant doesn’t think that’s a realistic goal, because students who volunteer usually get experience out of it, and Night Owls can’t offer that.

“Other than being director or dispatcher, how can Night Owls help students with a future career?” Quant says. “If someone needs a reference, we can give them that.”

Even though Night Owls is facing large cuts, Quant says that they trust the decisions made by the budget committee.

“There were budget cuts all across the board,” Quant says. “SG understands the importance of Night Owls and they’ve been extremely helpful.”

With no sign of budget cuts coming to an end, the desk in the Night Owls dispatch might continue to collect dust for a while.

Night Owls driving service runs Monday through Thursday, 8 p.m. to midnight. Call them for a ride: (561) 297-6695

Funding For Night Owls Over the Years

Funding for Night Owls has fluctuated over the years, with the most recent years showing decline.