Student Council proposed a $231,481.75 budget for the 2024-25 academic year, a roughly 50 percent reduction from last year’s $442,843 budget, during its General Body meeting Tuesday. According to Valentina Mendoza Gonzalez, Student Council president and fourth-year College student, the budget reduction will help increase budget utilization across its branches, better support funding for Contracted Independent Organizations and combat a potential budget deficit.
Student Council’s budget stems from three sources — the Student Activities Fee, non-SAF funds and University allocations. This year’s proposed budget’s funding is comprised of roughly 32 percent SAF funds, 3 percent non-SAF funds and 65 percent University allocation funds. The SAF is an annual payment of $58 included in all students’ tuition, and it provides a consistent source of funding for Student Council to allocate money to CIOs. University allocations come from a three-year $750,000 endowment that University President Jim Ryan gave Student Council last fall.
Brookelyn Mitchell, vice president for administration and fourth-year College student, confirmed that almost all branches of Student Council are receiving substantial budget cuts. Mitchell said these cuts are due to low utilization rates of budgeted funds from Student Council branches in past years, as well as concerns over a depleting surplus of Student Council funds.
While Student Council’s proposed budget for the 2024-25 academic year decreased by about 50 percent compared to last year, according to Mitchell, last year’s administration only used around 25 percent of their budgeted funds.
“Instead of over budgeting and underspending internally, we want to budget how much we will actually use so that we have a higher utilization rate internally,” Mitchell said.
According to Mitchell, over budgeting poses a problem for CIOs, as the Student Council constitution states that unspent money that has been allocated cannot be reallocated to meet other needs, such as CIO requests, until the next budget cycle.
“When [we] don't use the entire amount of SAF that we request, it just sits there. It is not allowed to be reallocated to CIOs or anything … We really want to spend what we're requesting.”
Mitchell also said that an increasing number of CIOs are requesting funds, placing a strain on Student Council. Last year, Student Council budgeted $856,873 for CIO allocations, but ultimately spent $887,409. Mitchell also said that the overspending will continue to increase if the budget is not restricted. With funds slowly running out from all sources of income, there might not be enough money to support all the CIOs requesting funding.
“[The deficit is] only going to continue to increase until we are more strict with how much money we're giving out ... which is why we're limiting our internal student council spending to increase their spending,” Mitchell said.
Ryan Bowers, vice president for organizations and fourth-year Commerce student, said that despite the reduced budget, if the budget is utilized completely, overall Student Council spending may still increase as CIOs continue to request more funding.
“While it's a substantially lower top line budget compared to past years, it does not mean that spending is necessarily cut,” said Bowers. “Student Council in the past has had a historically really low utilization rate, and putting that money where clubs now can't access it hinders clubs’ ability to promote themselves on Grounds.”
One resource that continues to require funding is the Support and Access Services branch. According to Mitchell, the proposed budget seeks to cut SAS funding by $65,800. The SAS branch offers services related to accessibility, mental health and academic accommodations for students, including Student Legal Services and the Textbook Access Office.
Mitchell said that last fiscal year, SAS requested $140,000 in the president's office fund, but that the branch only used 25 to 28 percent of that amount. This year, Mitchell said Student Council allocated $74,300 to support SAS services, with Airbus receiving the largest portion due to its high usage.
Mendoza Gonzalez also expressed concerns over depleting Student Council’s surplus funding as a contributing factor for the budget cuts across the board. According to Mendoza Gonzalez, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Student Activities Fee was collected even while there were no programs taking place, resulting in a buildup of unspent SAF funds and giving Student Council more leeway in subsequent budgets. While Mendoza Gonzalez said that this surplus, coupled with the new endowment funds, were instrumental in creating the SAS branch, these funds could soon be depleted, potentially jeopardizing SAS's future operations.
“After fiscal year 2027, our COVID surplus is going to run out, and our president's office funding is going to run out,” Mendoza Gonzalez said. “We're kind of in a tough spot where the endowment hasn't started coming into full function, but we also know that our gifts and our surplus [are] going to run out, so we have to cut the budget.”
To address these concerns, Mendoza Gonzalez said she is now seeking alternative funding sources outside of the SAF to maintain the branch’s stability. One such source could be another endowment, as Mitchell said that securing another endowment would help stabilize SAS’s future and ease concerns about the program’s funding running out. At Student Council’s last General Body meeting, Mendoza Gonzalez described getting this additional endowment as a top priority.
During the legislative session, representatives made amendments to add about $2,500 to the budget, raising it from $231,481.75 to $233,981.75. Amendments included adjustments for transportation funding, law school representative discretionary funds and funding for community iftars.
One amendment moved $500 from the law school representative’s discretionary budget from SAF to non-SAF funding. Another increased transportation funding for polling places by moving $500 from SAF to University allocations and adding an additional $100. Lastly, funding for community iftars was increased by reallocating $2,000 under diversity engagement in the University allocation and adding an additional $2,000.
The proposed annual budget excludes summer spending, fixed costs such as the SLS lawyer’s salary and Student Council's annual donation to Madison House.
Andreas Masiakos, representative body chair and fourth-year College student, explained that the budget legislation must be tabled once before being voted on, as required by the Student Council constitution. He encouraged representatives to propose amendments during this week’s meeting so that the budget can be finalized next week.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Student Council appointed third-year College student Lily Dorathy as the new Director of Coalition Engagement, a position responsible for maintaining relationships with student groups and communities on Grounds, according to Student Council’s bylaws.
During leadership reports, Mendoza Gonzalez also said student leaders, including the chairs of the University Judiciary Committee and the Honor Committee, would meet after the General Body session to discuss “next steps” surrounding the recent suspension of University Guides’ admissions and historical tours, though she did not provide further information.
Student Council will reconvene Tuesday to un-table and vote on the revised budget bill.
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