Associated Students Averts a $29K Deficit

Photo courtesy of The Triton.

The Associated Students corrected a projected funding deficit for the Student Organization Programming Fund after it was discovered in last week’s AS Council meeting.

Senior Associate Vice President (AVP) of Student Organizations Nathan Park gave a presentation about student organization funding at last week’s AS Council meeting, projecting a $29,000 funding deficit for the Programming Fund.

Funds have since been reallocated from revenue collected by the Senior Memory Book, unused funds from already funded events, and increased student fee revenue due to more student attendance than last year. There is now around $40,000 in funding for Spring Quarter.

The Programming Fund is disbursed to student organizations hosting events. The application for funds is online and funding requests must be sent at least 25 working days before the event.

AVP Park cited organizational issues with the AS Office of Finance and Resources, which is in charge of handling funding requests. AVP Park reviews around 2,000 applications for funding in a year with the Vice President of Finance, so it is easy to make a mistake and misallocate funds.

“We receive around 2,000 applications a year and it is impossible to monitor every single event,” Park said. “However, with the current system, it has become even more difficult to supervise events and make sure student funds are used properly.”

As a result, the AS Office of Funding and Resources plans to add more event coordinators and funding policy advisors focusing on student organization funding. They will host a town hall for student organizations on May 14 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Price Center Forum.

Ethan Coston is an Assistant News Editor for The Triton. You can follow him @Ethan4Books.