Questions to think about:

This is students’ money.  It’s not administrators’ money.  We should have more input on its use.  At other schools, students have complete control over the entire student fee!

1. We approve the “funding split,” that is, we recommend how much money should be allocated to the administrative budget and to the remaining programming.  Currently, that split is set at 52% for administration, and 48% for programs and activities and schools and colleges.  Since we do recommend to approve the split, shouldn’t we see the administrative budget first?  
2. The administrative budget also has a surplus.  We need to know how much money is in the surplus to determine whether the current funding split is appropriate.
3. Certain groups receive support from the administrative budget in the form of staff employed with student activity dollars and offices.  Isn’t staff and facility support relevant to their programming budget?
4. Why is administrative overhead 52%?   That is, why are we spending more money on administration than programming?
5. Since this is our money, shouldn’t we have a greater role in determining administrative issues?  For instance, since over $500,000 of student activity fees are being spent on staff salaries, shouldn’t we be in on hiring and review decisions?
6. The administrative surplus was used several years ago to buy the furniture in the Tate Center.  The administrators who made the purchasing decision deliberately chose furniture that was difficult to sleep on.  Shouldn’t students be making the decision of what furniture to purchase, as we paid for it and it is being provided for our use?
7. Surplus will be used again to equip the intramural fields with lights.  Did students approve that allocation?
8. Other, more tangential issues present themselves in thorough review of the situation.  For instance, over a million dollars in student activity fees are allocated to running Memorial and Tate Center.  So, what about the food services facilities in Memorial and Tate?  Should they be paying us rent for using space maintained by student activity fees?

Students pay $38/semester in student activity fees.  Some students waive activity fees, so this adds up to a rough figure of:
$38 x 2 semesters=$76
$76 x ~30,000=$2,200,000


That $2,200,000 is divided into three pots:
1. Administrative Budget
2. Programs & Activities
3. Schools and Colleges

The administrative budget comprises 52% of the $2.2 million.  This budget pays for staff salaries and the operation of the Tate Center and Memorial Halls.

Unspent funds from the administrative budget go into a “prior year funds” account.  Administrators allocate this surplus money

The remaining 48% of the budget funds pots two and three: programs & activities, and the schools and colleges allocations.  We make recommendations of how this money should be allocated.

Unspent funds from programs and activities are placed in “prior year funding” account and allocated in consultation with our committee.