Though many students remain baffled by the complicated issue of special-fees funding, the effects of the ASSU Undergraduate Senate’s recent decision to slash the proposed budgets of many student groups is already being felt across campus.

In the wake of the special-fees votes last month and this month, student groups have been scrambling to reassess their budgets and to circulate petitions that would allow them to regain a place on the special-fees ballot for the spring election.

Petitions were so prevalent during dead and finals weeks — handed out in dining halls, posted on bulletin boards and passed door to door in residences — that most students were asked to sign more than one. The largest burden fell on those student group members who were assigned to collect signatures.

Freshman Jarret Guajardo, a member of the Stanford Equestrian Team, was asked to collect signatures on behalf of Club Sports, which had its budget proposal reduced from $200,629 to $156,897 by the Senate.

“I don’t have the time during finals week to go out and collect signatures, especially because we were supposed get graduate signatures,” Guajardo said. “I would have to hunt them down.”

Another group that was hit particularly hard by the Senate vote was KZSU, which will stop broadcasting away games starting next year if its funding is cut, according to junior Jordi Mata-Fink, the station’s co-sports director.

Mata-Fink said that if KZSU does not receive money for road travel, the coverage of at least eight sports will be affected next year, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, softball and baseball.

Currently, KZSU broadcasts around 210 games during the school year, but that number could be drastically reduced as a result of the Senate’s decision.

“This is disappointing on several levels,” said sophomore Sean Bruich who covers baseball for KZSU. “First, it’s a neat thing to be able to travel with the team, to see some other schools and to have an opportunity to gain that experience of broadcasting on the road. But it is also frustrating because I know that much of our audience, whether it is friends, professors or parents, relies on us to bring them away games.”

According to KZSU financial manager Orges Beqiri, a junior, the station’s budget was cut by about $23,000, with most of that figure coming from the sports department.

“The ASSU rationale this year was to cut all special-fees funding that was meant for travel use because all activities taking place off-campus benefited only a very, very small portion of the campus population,” Beqiri said. “Their mistake was in applying this standard, blindly, across the board, to all groups. KZSU sends broadcasters away from campus so they can bring Stanford sports ‘to campus.’”

ASSU Senator Chris Lin, a junior, said groups that disagreed with their approved budgets or groups that were rejected for balanced placement altogether could demonstrate support from the student body through the petition process. A group must obtain signatures from 15 percent of the undergraduate or graduate student bodies in order to be placed on their respective ballots in the spring.

Groups have criticized the petitioning process as a form of pointless red tape, since students rarely decline to give their signature, but Lin says the process works.

“While it is true that some students will sign any petition that comes their way, especially if it is their friend requesting the signature, petitioning nevertheless requires a substantial amount of organization, and more importantly, student interest in that group,” Lin said.

The ballot vote is also being criticized from within the Senate. Senator Dylan Mefford, a junior, broke with many of his colleagues by registering his disapproval of the special-fees arrangement.

“It is arrogant for the ASSU to tell student groups that they should cut their budgets when the members of the ASSU don’t understand the difficulties of fundraising to fill budget shortfalls, or the importance of the funding for the groups,” Mefford said. “I trust student groups to ask for reasonable amounts. Their original budgets showed that they did so.”

Mefford is running this spring to be the ASSU vice president.

For now, KZSU is trying to regain its original budget through the petition process.

Because of complaints about the timing of the petition deadline during finals week, the Senate extended the deadline to Tuesday, March 30.

The station is also continuing to seek outside funding, though it is especially difficult because as a non-commercial station, KZSU cannot have advertising on the air.

Instead, KZSU obtains funds from businesses through underwriting, which means that businesses can donate money to the station and have their donation recognized during broadcasts.

Finally, the station is trying to arrange funding from the Athletic Department, although Mata-Fink says that like many departments at Stanford, the Athletic Department is already strapped for money.

For Beqiri, this means more time spent trying to avert the painful realities of the special-fees crisis.

“The ASSU special-fees application process gets tougher and tougher each year,” he said. “Every time through, there’s more paperwork to be filled out, more rules to keep in mind, more committees to meet with, more mandatory meetings to attend and so forth. Frankly, it’s a little ridiculous.”