The Associated Students Finance Committee gave its budget recommendation on April 6 to every Board, Committee and Unit for the 2026-27 academic year, to which the Black Women’s Health Collaborative saw a 63% decrease in its annual budget. A Daily Nexus investigation found that delayed funding procedures, coupled with an inactive advisor, led to the proposed budget decrease.
BWHC has a $90,000 budget for the 2025-26 academic year and requested $124,800 for the 2026-27 academic year. Nexus file photo
The next day, the collaborative posted a statement on Instagram alleging anti-Blackness within the Association regarding the budget cut and being left without an active staff advisor for two quarters.
At the beginning of spring quarter, the Associated Students (A.S.) Finance Committee began the annual budget cycle by giving its budget recommendation to every A.S. entity based on each organization’s respective meeting minutes — which track financial motions throughout the year. Without Senate-approved meeting minutes, the finance committee claims it has no way of confirming how much a Board, Committee and Unit (BCU) has spent of its budget.
The Nexus obtained confirmation through the Google drive that contains all A.S. meeting minutes, that the BWHC had not submitted meeting minutes the entire year, until after the budget recommendations were handed out. The Nexus also confirmed that other BCUs that received proposed budget cuts of over 10% had submitted meeting minutes, and the proposed cut was unique to each organization.
BWHC has a $90,000 budget for the 2025-26 academic year and requested $124,800 for the 2026-27 academic year, which includes funding for honoraria, travel and special projects among other things. The finance committee recommended a budget of $33,000 — $20,400 of which was solely allocated for honoraria, with the remaining $9,600 for special projects.
BWHC Co-Chair and third-year communication major Fatoumata Kéré said that a project budget of $9,600 would barely cover their most popular event — the Black Beauty Expo — which costs around $10,000 to host.
Notably, the A.S. Finance Committee’s recommendations are not the final budget, as they’ll be sent to the A.S. President and fourth-year Spanish, global studies and communication triple major Le Ahn Metzger for her deliberation. Metzger will then present her budget recommendation to the A.S. Senate for approval, likely during Week 5. The BWHC budget is still subject to change, as with all other A.S. entities.
Kéré said it has been difficult for BWHC to navigate the bureaucratic systems of A.S., as they claimed to have not had an active staff advisor for fall and winter quarter. Every BCU is assigned a staff advisor who assists students within each organization. Despite A.S. staff advisor Marissa Valdez Reynoso being assigned to the BWHC, Kéré noted she made no effort to contact the collaborative and did not attend any board meetings.
Reynoso confirmed she made a single attempt to contact BWHC and never met with the group before taking medical leave during winter quarter.
According to Kéré, she made multiple attempts to communicate her concerns over not having an active advisor at both the A.S. retreat at the beginning of the year and the winter quarterly States of the Association. Following these events, Kéré said the Collaborative received minimal assistance from A.S. members.
The Collaborative now has a different advisor, Assistant Director of Human Resources Lili Hartounian, whom Kéré said is “amazing,” but highlights this experience has left their relationship with A.S. “rocky,” with support from the Senate being “non-existent.”
“It’s been harming us a lot this year, just because we’re the main source of support and funding for the overall Black community on this campus, because we’re the only Black BCU and Black organization who has the means,” Kéré said.
Taken together, BWHC alleges these incidents reflect a broader pattern of anti-Blackness within the Association which they emphasized in their Instagram statement.
“It is evident that A.S. has no issue with using Black culture as entertainment as seen by last weekend’s “The Warm-Up” concert, and countless other UCSB events, yet they have struggled and failed to support the Black students that are a part of this school, this community, and this campus,” the statement read.
BWHC will attend the April 22 Senate meeting to voice their concerns during public forum. The Nexus will continue to report on this topic as more information becomes available.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the April 23 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
Interesting obfuscation in the title. BWHC in their statement clearly accused the AS Senate and Associated Students at large of anti-blackness, yet you wait over halfway in the article to mention that. Got someone you’re protecting?