Campus Life receives close to half million

SABC allocates $450,000 to Campus Life, which amounts to 45 percent of entire budget

This year the Department of Campus Life received $450,000 from the Student Activity Budget Committee. The money comes from student activity fees, which are separate fees not covered in tuition.

The allocation may be considered excessive compared to other SABC allocations, but when looking at the large number of activities offered, the correlation between budget and activities is apparent.

The yearly allocation process is very important for student groups like the Department of Campus Life to receive money.

According to Paul Jahr, financial advisor to the SABC, every spring the SABC announces that it is accepting money requests for student activities. Any Recognized Student Organization can request money, and is then asked to present a proposal as a follow up to their request.

“After deliberation and recommendations, your elected SGA president announces which organizations will receive money for the following fiscal year, and how much money they will receive,” Jahr said.

Many different organizations are within the Department of Campus Life. Some of th organizations include recreational sports and Greek life.

Director of Campus Life Tom Miles says the money  goes first to personnel costs, which takes a large chunk of out of the budget. In fact, personnel costs for this year are $285,000, including salary for employees who work with student activities and the employee’s benefits.

“The remaining amount of money goes to where the highest interest of students is,” Miles said. “This year, intramural sports are receiving $60,000. That is where we’re spending the most, because that is what the students participate in the most.”

Following in line are the departmental
costs, which add up to be $36,000. A delegated
“special projects” budget is also in the
mix. This budget is $30,000.

“Special projects usually amount to the ‘Week of Welcome,’” Miles said. “We cover the entire Week of Welcome, which gets pretty costly.”

OrgSync, a student organization management system, receives $17,000. Club sports, such as the volleyball club and the racquetball club receive a total of $12,000.

Rounding out the budget, the last $10,000 is saved for summer activities.

“Beyond personnel, every dime we have goes to students and their interests,” Miles said. “When you compare our student involvement with other colleges, our students are extremely active and involved.”

Some students are content with the budget and the cost of student activity fees. Jaimee Reyna, second year graduate assistant for the athletic training program is one of these students.

“I think that the budget is pretty reasonable after hearing where the expenses are coming from. I enjoy participating in intramurals and I appreciate the fact that we have them available to us,” Reyna said.

Posted by SabrinaChandler on Sep 8 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.