For the first time in recent memory, Student Union (SU) will not have enough money to support additional funding requests from student organizations for the 2024-25 academic year according to SU leadership, with some Treasury representatives jokingly calling it the “SU Recession.”
Sources in Treasury say this issue came from last year’s Budget Committee over-allocating money to student organizations and clubs requesting more additional funds this year.
In a statement on Sept. 30, Vice President of Finance and junior Meris Damjanovic said the Budgets and Appeals account, an account containing all the appeals or supplemental money allotted to student groups for the year, is currently at $190,937.98, compared to the $344,452.38 at this time last year. The remaining budget will likely last until the beginning of next semester.
“That’s [enough for] six-and-a-half sessions, which would get us through the rest of this year and one session in the spring,” Damjanovic said.
These low funds, according to Damjanovic, are partially from how SU Treasury’s Budget Committee restructured its funding this year. On average, student groups were allocated more money for their annual budgets at the start of the semester to minimize additional funding requests.
These requests, also known as appeals, allow clubs to pursue programming beyond regular club meetings, such as attending national tournaments or conferences and hosting speaker events that would otherwise be out of their budgets.
As the semester has progressed, groups have continued to ask for more money than in years prior. Their appeal requests — not including initial money given as part of general budgets — have totalled $382,940.36 this year, compared to $207,244.00 at this time last year. However, SU does not accept all of these requests, with SU having allocated $252,396.83 so far this year, while $172,144.23 was allocated at this time last year.
Because of the expected decrease in appeal requests and additional funds given to Spring WILD, the Budgets and Appeals account started with approximately $400,000 at the beginning of the academic year instead of the usual $480,000, which exacerbated the issue according to Damjanovic.
Despite SU Treasury’s current monetary situation, Treasury approved $28,318.91 in appeals yesterday, including a $10,000 allocation to all SU-funded student organizations to pay for WUGO card check-in swipers to monitor club attendance.
Damjanovic said that if SU runs out of money next semester, student groups will not get any funding through appeals, so clubs should make their appeals as soon as possible to ensure funding for their events.
“Please submit your biggest events now [and] get that money out of the way because come March, April, we may not have that money,” Damjonovic said. “I’m trying to convey this early, because if groups need to start fundraising, that’s something that needs to start happening now.”
As for possible solutions, Damjonovic plans to withdraw some funds from SU’s Carry Forward account, the money reserved for future fiscal years, to potentially stretch SU’s budget this year.
“I could fully deplete the Carry Forward account and we would be fine for this year, but that is not my intention. I want everyone to know that I am doing all that I can,” Damjonvic said.
Christine Ling, Speaker of Treasury and a junior, said Treasury is doing the best that they can to remedy SU’s monetary issues.
“I feel like although it is a difficult situation we’re all in, everyone is doing their absolute best to make the available funding stretch as far as possible,” Ling said.
Katie Cho, Budget Committee Chair and a junior, hopes to change how funding is allocated next year.
“I am meeting with the rest of the financial leadership at the end of this semester to create upcoming caps and expectations for the upcoming spring budget cycle,” Cho wrote in a statement to Student Life. “We will fund groups through supplemental appeals closer to the date [of their events] so student groups’ events will run smoothly and SU Treasury will not over-allocate.”
Damjanovic hopes to find a solution to this problem for the student body and clubs affected by SU’s monetary issue.
“There cannot be a vibrant campus community if SU is not allocating funds to student groups,” Damanjovic said. “We are going to take this slowly, we are to take it thoroughly, and next year, this should not be a problem.”
