- L. FULLER
Editor in Chief
If there are only $1.3 million available, but $6,150 more are needed, what can be done about it?
For the Student Association (SA) that problem presented itself on General Assembly (GA) Day when balancing the budget for the 27 constituted clubs for the 2016-17 academic year. Five clubs (Sound Services, Art Forum, Brother 2 Brother, Club Hockey and Blackhorse Rugby) stated their cases to try to get a combined $6,150 back that was cut from the first drafts of their budgets.
Three potential solutions presented themselves: make cuts and adjustments to all 27 clubs’ proposed budgets to free up $6,150, raise the Student Activity Fee to put more money into the budget, or deny the request for the $6,150 all together.
Which solution did SA’s Budget and Appropriations (B&A) Committee end up going with?
A combination of all three.
As a result of B&A Week and GA Day, the Student Activity Fee will be raised from its current amount of $102 to $109.50, pending budget approval from SA President Jason Burgos and Fredonia President Virginia Horvath, effective next semester.
“This year we had another trend of decreasing enrollment which meant that the Student Association had less money to give to these groups,” said Student Comptroller, and junior business finance major, Rachel Ando.
SA’s budget is funded by the Student Activity Fee; a semesterly, mandatory fee that is billed to students as part of Fredonia’s tuition. When less students are paying tuition, less students are paying the fee.
After seven hours of questions, comments, explanations and answers, all 27 constituted groups left GA Day “satisfied” — meaning they were content with their budget. Starting the morning off with five “dissatisfied” — meaning they were discontent with their budget — groups, the B&A Committee was determined to balance the more-than-$1.3 million budget in a way that met all groups in the middle for compromise.
But it happened at a slight cost to all students.
This $7.50 increase is, historically, the largest increase that’s ever happened all at once.
“We always try to keep the [Student Activity] fee as low as possible. And within the past 20 years, the fee has only [been] raised $30.00,” said Ando. “Although we had to raise the fee again this year, we are still pleased with the outcome of the entire meeting.”
The B&A Committee raised the fee $7.25 at the conclusion of B&A Week back in February after making more cuts and adjustments to balance the whole budget. Then, faced with the $6,150 conflict at GA Day, voted to raise the fee the additional 25 cents. But that didn’t cover the entire deficit, so the clubs came together to make suggestions on how to save money, to compromise and even to donate money to each other.
“I think over the past few years, with declining enrollment, our constituted groups have realized the situation that the Association is in and have made changes accordingly,” said Burgos, a senior finance major. “I commend our groups for adapting to drastic change … while still putting on great events. The donations given out by various constituted groups was very reassuring, knowing that all of our Constituted groups are in this together.”
Due to a lack of planning, Sound Services was denied its request for $1,000, but ended the day satisfied as per an understanding of the reasoning. Blackhorse Rugby found a different source of funding for its $1,000 request and, therefore, ended the meeting satisfied. Club Hockey ended up satisfied with a compromise of $500 of its original $1,000 request, while Brother 2 Brother also compromised with $1,775 of its original $2,900 request. Art Forum, with its request of $250, received its request, not through funds offered to it by the B&A Committee but from generous donations from Jazz Workshop, Performing Arts Club and S.T.E.P.S.
Despite the length of the meeting, the raise in tuition and the, at times, heated nature of discussion, the meeting was adjourned with each club receiving a budget that will allow them to continue their missions next year.
“We greatly appreciate everything the constituted groups and class representatives are doing for this campus as a whole,” said Ando.