How much, is too much?

Ever wondered what happened to the activity fee money students pay every semester?

Students pay a fee each semester towards student activities fees. During the 2002-2003 year, students had to pay $55. The Board of Regents determines the amount of the fee.

“The request for an increase in student fees has to go through the Board of Regents and the University has to justify why we need more money,” Max Allen., executive assistant to the president and director of University Relations.

According to the Georgia College & State University business office, the fee will most likely increase next year.

Most students do not realize where this fee actually goes and the programs it funds. The student activities fee funds Campus Activities Board, Intramural sports, The Peacock’s Feet, Student Government Association, The Colonnade and other Registered Student Organizations seeking money.

The Student Allocations Budget Committee (SABC) is in charge of appropriating the money to various organizations. The executive officers of SGA comprise the budget committee and have a faculty advisor to oversee their decisions. To receive money from SABC, organizations must fill out an application, go through an interview process and make a proposal for money.

Keith Woodruff, president of SGA and head of the SABC, explained the concept of CAB’s formula budget.

“This year it works a little bit differently. This year Student Activities is operating on a formula budget, so their own department gets a percentage,” Woodruff said. “I think that it is a little more than 29 percent, and that’s not including personnel.”

What this means is, regardless of the revenue made from student activity fees, CAB will always receive 29 percent. The money is given to Eddie Howard, head of Student Activities, and he uses his discretion when splitting up the funds.

The formula budget was received after Howard asked SGA to pass a resolution.

“It was somewhat controversial, but I think eventually, some incarnate
of it passed through the senate and was signed by last year’s president,” Woodruff said.

Since they are on a formula budget, the number of students attending CAB/Bobcat Night events is not factored into how much money they receive.

“The numbers aren’t something that we try to do anything with,” Zompetti said. “When we talk about funding we don’t furnish our numbers, so the only thing that the numbers are used for are for internal use. Obviously if someone requests them, then we’ll offer them, but that’s not something that we have traditionally done or tried to stake anything on.”

“To say that they’re not used for money probably wouldn’t be 100 percent true, but it’s not one of the major factors,” Howard said.

This year, CAB alone received $86,080 out of the total 29 percent allocated to Student Activities. As of April 18, CAB has expended $68,230.51, with three events left to complete. The money is distributed between CAB events ($41,742.79) and Bobcat Nights ($ 26,487.72). In fall 2002, CAB had 27 regular events and four Bobcat nights. In spring 2003, CAB had 33 regular events and six Bobcat nights.

Average CAB attendance for Fall 2002 and Spring 2003 was 127.035 percent, down more than 6 percent from Fall 2001- Spring 2002.

CAB believes the numbers will turn around and the 2002-2003 averages will exceed the previous year because they have yet to hold two more events and Midnight Breakfast, which is always one of the biggest crowd drawing programs CAB sponsors averages between 600-650 people.

“In its heyday it’s at 725 and at its low point is 535 so that would not be captured into the number that you would have,” said Suzette Zompetti, assistant director of Student Activities and CAB advisor. “Obviously that would increase it.”

“When we count the number of people that are at a particular event, that will basically make the decision for the future of what programs are going to come back and how students responded to that particular program,” Howard said. “When people ask about what events we’ve done and what kind of events we feel like are possible, we look back at those number and say ‘well at Midnight Breakfast we had over 500 people show up for that.’ ”

CAB has also increased the number of total events it sponsors from 46 in Fall 2001-Spring 2002 to 67 in Fall 2002-Spring 2003.

“If you increase the number of events, then you’re going to see an increase in the number of participants. However, the percentage of the number of participants that are coming is what is captured in that average and I think that increase is really what you need to focus on,” Zompetti said. “Another thing is that the satisfaction with the events offered has gone up. Fall 2001, there weren’t a lot of new events that got offered, a lot of that got phased-in in the spring.”

Out of the $68,230.51, a little more than 4 percent of the money allocated to CAB and Bobcat Nights went towards prizes. This equals approximately $3,135.87.

“Bobcat Nights was initially patterned after Midnight Breakfast, which obviously is a huge success,” Zompetti said. “The combination of the food and the prizes are what we have traditionally seen making late nights successful.”

Michael has attended a few CAB events, however, he doesn’t think that they should be spending money on prizes.

“It seems kind of extravagant,” Michael said. “I wouldn’t want my money going to that. If the money is going to the organization, then they should justify getting that money.”

Zompetti believes that the money that they received is justified.

“We have encouraged more imput from students about what they want to see,” Zompetti said. “To try to break away from the cheesy mindset or the geeky mindset of events being selected by those individuals that served on the board and to get them to try to think of things outside of themselves. What individuals they like, the rest of the campus may not like.”

“I haven’t attended any CAB events,” Andrew Mize said. “If they use your money to buy stuff like that (prizes), then I think that it is wrong. I’m pretty outraged that they are using any of our money to buy prizes and stuff.”

Rachel Bollen, an art major wasn’t even aware that CAB gave out prizes at Bobcat Nights.

“I didn’t know that they gave out prizes because I have never been to any of their events,” Bollen said. “If I had known that, I would have come more.”

Valerie Yowmens, a marketing major and Crystal Doolittle, nursing major, wouldn’t have minded, except neither one of them were lucky recipients of CAB prizes.

“If I had won one of the DVD players then I probably wouldn’t care,” Yowmen said. “But I haven’t and I didn’t know anything about it. I am paying that money for my education, not for entertainment.”

“If you win it, it’s okay, but if you sit there and you don’t win it and you know that you have given money,” Doolittle said. “The money could be used for something more useful.”

SGA says that the 29 percent is not a completely set figure, it can be changed if necessary.

“We could change the percentage if we wanted to, but that’s probably not going to happen,” Woodruff said. “The numbers can be changed if they were doing something huge like throwing their money away.”

The students have various opinions concerning how the money should be spent.

“I would put it toward better food in the cafeteria and maybe for some of the departments of education. Some of the departments are okay, but they aren’t that great. We could put the money towards the departments. And use it for basic education purposes,” said Mize.

“I would put the money towards the community and the places that need to be fixed,” said Bollen.

“I think it should go to all of the construction that we have on campus, maybe a parking deck, I don’t know, but I think that more things on campus could be done other than DVD players,” said Yowmen.

“I would probably have a lot more activities for the students. You know how you have stuff on Friday nights, well, have stuff on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Because you know a lot of people aren’t here on Friday nights. I have been here on the Bobcat nights and there wasn’t hardly anybody there,” said Doolittle.

- Courtney Ferrell and MBC News
contributed to this article.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 25 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry