Ripon College Days

Over $52,000 of unspent Student Senate budgetary monies will roll over into this year's one fund. Included in this sum is nearly $25,000 of unspent student organization budget money.

Although student organizations have failed to spend the entirety of their allocated budgets, some within Senate, including President junior Chris Reed-Waddell, believe there isn't enough money available to student organizations and the student activities fee should be increased in order to allow larger budgets.

At last week's meeting, Senate approved a recommendation by the Finance Committee to raise the student activities fee by $35, bringing the cost from $240 to $275.

Reed-Waddell and Treasurer sophomore Matt Bush say the increase will benefit student organizations and allow much-needed funding.

"The amount of money organizations have requested has risen, and though they were entitled to it, the overall amount of money [Student Senate has been able to allocate] has gone down," says Reed-Waddell.

However, the amount of money unspent in student organization accounts indicate the amount student organizations actually spend is within their allocated budget, as organizations consistently spend below their allotment.

Even though organizations are requesting budgets that exceed the funds available to Senate, rollover reports do not conclude a strong need for additional monies.

"Generally, most organizations request much more money than they need in order to ensure Senate will provide the bare minimum of what they do need," says senior Aaron Park, co-editor of Parallax.

Some of the largest amount of rollover came from groups with the largest budgets. For example, SMAC had nearly $6,000 remaining after the 2004-05 year. WRPN had $4,605 remaining, and organizations like Crimson, Parallax and College Days also had about $1,000 remaining.

But, even smaller organizations like the Fencing Club, SIFE, Flying Hands and Circle K used very little, if any, of their allotment.

With $25,000 of the total rollover accounted for from student organizations, the remaining sum comes from funds such as the Senate President Discretionary Fund, the Dean's Discretionary Fund and the Student Senate Discretionary Fund, that were all upwards of $1,000 each. However, it is standard for these funds to rollover, as they are saved to be used primarily in case of emergencies.

It is also standard procedure for Student Senate to limit spending of the one fund, causing some amount of one fund dollars to rollover. Approximately $10,000 rolled over from last year's one fund.

When questioned about the legitimacy of Senate's budget hearings and whether Senate is giving too much money to student organizations, Reed-Waddell says, "It is more of a student organization issue, and there is not much the budget or finance committee can do to remedy the problem [of rollover]." He says though he recognizes it is an imperfect system, "it would take a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy to get it re-vamped."

A decision to make the proposed activities fee official could come as early as the Oct. 7 meeting of the Board of Trustees, who have the ultimate say in whether tuition and fees should be adjusted.

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