The Record

Senates release controversial club funding numbers

By: Kira Garrett

The Activities and Allocations Board (AAB) notified clubs about budget cuts last Thursday. Both senates passed new motions this year that requires funding decisions to take place during the spring. In previous years, the AAB met in the fall to allocate funding for that school year.

The Record received the largest portion of student funding, at 11 percent of the student activity fee. Students Fostering Conservative Thought (SFCT) and College Republicans received the next two largest allocations, at 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Sen. Corbin Cleary, who is the chair of the AAB for St. John’s, said he does not believe two clubs with such similar missions should, combined, receive the largest allocation.

Spring Funding Graph Spring Funding Breakdown List

“The Record is something that all students read — it reaches the student body,” Cleary said. “Clubs like SFCT and College Republicans cater to so few people. It’s important to really think about how the money is spent and that it’s for the greater good of the student body,” Cleary said.

Student Activities and Leadership Director Maribeth Overland stressed the importance of keeping the best interest of the student body at the forefront of every decision.

“My hope for our student club leaders is that they have chosen to attend a Benedictine institution and they should respect those values, like community living, stewardship and respect for persons,” Overland said. “I would urge students to consider those values and take a look at what money they’ve asked for and consider whether or not that truly goes for the common good.”

Some dissatisfaction

While AAB members do not necessarily agree on the success of this year’s funding, they do all agree that the process difficult.

“People who serve on the CFB have one of the most difficult student leadership positions,” Overland said. “Students are verbally beaten up by their peers because you can’t make
everyone happy.”

The best solution to dissatisfaction, Overland said, is for students to voice their opinions.

“I hope the student population as a whole, if they have suggestions or thoughts, gets their voice out there,” Overland said. “Spring funding happened because students advocated for it, so if there are concerns with allocations, students should speak up about that too.”

Some senators, like Club Auditor Brian Kohout, still oppose the new spring funding process.

“I fear that people will over-allocate because they aren’t going to be there in the fall and don’t have to deal with the appeals,” Kohout said. “It’s unethical for one senate to make the allocations and another senate to do the appeals.”

The allocations process

The AAB began the allocation process by listening to each club’s budget presentation.  The clubs’ budgets were further considered from there.

“Every club is evaluated on merit, meaning how the budget fits the mission of the organization,” Overland said.

Requests from all clubs totaled $376,524.33, which is far more than the student activity fee provides.

“We deliberated each club separately without looking at how much money we had to give and we came up $25-27,000 short,” AAB Chair Corbin Cleary said.

Once the AAB reduced each club’s budget to include no unnecessary expenses, organizations that asked for more than $1,000 were reduced by a flat rate of 10 percent.

“At this point, it was the opinion of the CFB that clubs’ budgets were reduced as much as possible, which resulted in the need for a flat fee to be cut,” AAB Chair Amanda Sperl said in an e-mail. “While the flat fee is definitely not the most ideal way of reducing allocations, reducing any one club’s budget would have resulted in inconsistencies in the rules that were followed to deduct funds.”

Cleary disagreed and felt more budget adjustments could have been made to reduce an overall flat cut, like re-considering requests for pricey speakers. About $37,000 was allocated for speaker fees, Cleary said.

“I was against an overall 10 percent cut, but it passed,” Cleary said, “Especially because clubs like College Republicans and Students Fostering Conservative Thought, two very similar clubs, asked for such a large portion of the student activity fee. I was disappointed in the way the discussion went this year.”

Overland said there are more clubs requesting more money than in previous years.

“The cost of living has risen higher and faster than the inflation of the student activity fee amount,” Overland said.

CFB meetings are open to the public and the appeals process will begin in the fall.

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