Editorial: No fun-ding board

October 18, 2006

As members of the La Salle community, we should be able to rest easy knowing that our tuition dollars are going towards the betterment of the University. We should know that the tens of thousands of dollars that we invest in our education are being spent wisely, with an eye towards La Salle’s future.

Every undergraduate student is required to pay a $100 activities fee per semester, which is then pooled together to form the Annual Budget for organizations. In order for an organization to receive a budget from this fund, it must fit a series of requirements (e.g., being in existence for three or more years). Near the end of each year, every organization that wishes to receive funding from this budget must submit a detailed budget proposal, describing exactly how much money it predicts it will need for the following year, as well as what they will spend money on. The proposals are then scrutinized by a group of administrators, faculty members and students known as the Activities Funding Board. The Funding Board also handles requests throughout the year from organizations that are not annually funded, but need financial support. The group also decides if requests for more money for annually funded organizations should be granted. This is a very heavy responsibility for this group, one which has come under recent scrutiny by some organizations at La Salle.

This past April, the Funding Board allocated $276,671.76 for 25 yearly funded groups for the 2006-2007 school year. Each organization’s allotment of this money depended upon how much they spent the previous year, how necessary their expenditures were to the organization and how much they claimed they would need for this current year in their proposal. However, while some organizations received the adequate amount to support their annual expenses, others are now feeling the brunt of a major cut in their budget. The Masque was awarded nearly $10,000 less than it was last year, even though the organization used up that year’s entire budget for its productions. Now with only a little more than $18,000, they have had to eliminate one show from their schedule, performing only two shows instead of the usual three.

Two administrative members of the board, Christopher Kazmierczak and Pete Lafferty, both agree that student organizations need to be responsible with their money from year to year, making sure that the money spent is for items and events that are very pertinent to the organizations’ missions. Since the Funding Board will take into consideration an organization’s spending habits when deciding each year’s budget, it is wise for every organization to spend appropriately. Even if organizations are very careful with their budget, though, the occasion may still arise when they need additional funding throughout the year.

“The door is never closed,” Kazmierczak said.

When looking at the numbers, though, it seems as though the money distributed to the annually funded groups was rather low. With 3,358 undergraduate students paying $100 each semester, the total amount that the Funding Board should be working with is $671,600, which means that the board has set aside almost $400,000 for proposals that arise during the year. While thrift is commendable, this very impressive amount of money could have been given to organizations that really need it right from the start. Even though the Funding Board had to estimate how much money they would have in the fall, which would be impacted by enrollment, the budget should have been able to be adjusted according to how many students did eventually enroll and contribute their $100 activities fee.

The membership of the Funding Board has also caused some worry. Of the eight student members, four are from the Students’ Government Association (SGA), and the other four spots are given to members of the Resident Student Association (RSA), the InterFraternity-Sorority Council (IFSC), Fellowship of Community and University Services (FOCUS) and a student who represents the multicultural organizations. With over 25 organizations receiving annual funding from the University, why do representatives from only five of those organizations decide how the money is dispersed? Having a more representative cross section of campus organizations on the board would be a more just way of appropriating funds. With its current manner of operating, however, some may question if the student members look more favorably on their own organizations.

“We take the job very seriously,” RSA representative Ed Fitzpatrick said. “When a particular group someone is in is [being discussed], that person just stays out of the discussion.”

Lafferty affirmed this pledge, saying that the students “leave their allegiance at the door to think about the entire University community.”

Groups that serve the campus community are under-funded, a problem we hope to see addressed. Budget cuts may sometimes be inevitable, but groups that provide vital services on campus should be taken care of. When these organizations lose funding, they cannot perform, produce, create or organize events for the Lasallian student body. Indeed, when these groups lose funding, La Salle loses something beautiful.