Delinquent clubs force budget cutbacks

Author: Zamir Ahmed

The Finance Committee cut the budget of every student organization by 12.5 percent for the 2006-2007 year, student leaders were informed earlier this semester. The funding cuts came at the same time that the Student Activities Fee, which provides the budget for the Finance Committee, was raised to $240 per student.

The budget cuts were necessary to ensure that every student organization received funding for the year, according to Finance Committee Chair Amanda Goodwin '07.5.

"A large and unanticipated number of student organizations did not participate in the spring budget process and requested full budgets in the summer and fall," said Goodwin. "This meant that a disproportionately large chunk of remaining funds would be allocated to these student organizations."

Contributing to the decision to cut student group funding was the Finance Committee's need for a sufficient amount of insurance money for emergency use. According to Doug Adams, director of the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership (CCAL), the insurance money is necessary because, as a self-insured body, the Committee is responsible for addressing and fixing major problems that arise on campus and that affect student organizations.

All student organizations are expected to meet with the Finance Committee in the spring to discuss their proposed budget for the following year if they wish to receive funding. In previous years, the Committee had set aside funds for groups that request money in the fall and for the insurance fund, a reserve that had met the organization's needs. However, this year the reserve was not sufficient to handle the demands from groups that had missed the normal budgetary process in the spring. In order to adequately meet new budget requests, the Committee realized it had to dip into the budgets of other student organizations. "The Committee's main purpose is to allocate funds effectively and equitably," said Goodwin. "Therefore, the most fair solution was an across-the board cut. For most clubs, we tried to take the cuts out equitably. We tried not to cut necessary operating money from groups."

The budgetary cuts will not affect all groups funded by the Finance Committee. A few organizations were exempt from the reduction but these were not considered student organizations and many have fixed costs. Among the groups that will be fully funded are The Middlebury Campus, the Commons as well as initiatives of the SGA such as Napster, the Student Initiatives Fund and the Symposium Committee.

The budgetary cuts came even after the Student Activities Fee was increased in February by $20 over last year's fee. The increase brought the resources of the Finance Committee to around $564,000 for the 2006-2007 year. However, with more than 150 student organizations asking for money, the Finance Committee is not able to fully fund every budget request they receive.

Many student organizations said they were already feeling the effect a smaller budget would have on the events they could plan for this year. WRMC will only be putting on one concert this year, down from a fall concert and spring concert last year.

"We couldn't cut out money from some areas, such as engineering and music, so the money got cut out of our concert budget," said Knef King '08, the business manager at WRMC. "Our concert budget for the year is now actually less than the budget we had for Seponoma, our spring concert last year."

"Our concerts should serve as an alternative to the MCAB concerts," said King. "It's a chance to bring a different kind of music to the Champlain Valley. We feel that alternatives to the mainstream at Middlebury are really being limited."

The Middlebury Fly-Fishing Club is also feeling the sting of the cuts on their budget. "We got less than half of what we wanted for our budget after the 12.5 percent cut," said Dave Barker '06.5, the group's business director. "The cuts were taken out of our equipment budget. We can't adequately supply the demand for fly-fishing equipment on campus."

The Finance Committee has set aside a reserve fund called 'new money' that groups can request for events after they have spent their allotted budgets. This limited reserve generally serves to help financially active student groups fund prospective events that they do not have sufficient funds to put on.

"We understand that since we cut budgets down, it may be necessary that groups may need 'new money'," said Goodwin. "In the past, it was a luxury. Now it's more of a necessity."

In seven orientation sessions sponsored by CCAL early this fall, the Finance Committee stressed that groups should not race to spend their budgets quickly to receive new money. Said Goodwin, "After this discussion, student organizations should be under the impression that this pool continues to be limited, and that it will be allocated later in the year on a case-by-case basis."