Each Jumbo on the Hill paid 296 dollars −− the Student Activities Fee −− as a part of the tuition expenses for the 2011−2012 academic year. Despite the seemingly clear intentions associated with the fee, the actual handling of the funds is rather ambiguous. The budgeting season for the Fiscal Year 2013 (FY2013) has already begun. Those not involved in the process, however, should consider how the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Treasury disburses nearly 1.5 million dollars.
The TCU Treasury is responsible for funding student activities budgeted by over 180 TCU−recognized organizations. The Allocations Board (ALBO), chaired by sophomore TCU Senate Treasurer Christie Maciejewski, is a committee that makes recommendations to the Senate on the allocation of the Student Activities Fee funds.
In the fall, the ALBO cohesively manages Buffer Funding, reserved for organizations that encounter unforeseen expenses, and New Group Funding, available for groups that are newly recognized by the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ).
In the spring, though, the ALBO focuses on the budgeting cycle. Comprised of nine councils −− Cultural, Social Programming, Media, Religious, Performance & Arts, Community Service & Miscellaneous, Pre−Professional & Academic, Political, and TCU Government −− that encompass all of the student organizations, the ALBO works with the signatories of each group to submit a final budget for Senate approval.
Each council is designated a cap which they must adhere to throughout the process, but ultimately, the council chairs allocate the money as they see fit based on the budgets submitted by the organizations.
"The council caps are a way of telling [the council chairs]: ‘This is your pool of money, so you [have to] fit under that.' And the chairs basically hit that cap," Maciejewski said. "If all the caps add up, we've allocated all the money we have."
Once groups are recognized by the TCUJ and have applied for New Group Funding, they are eligible to submit a budget in the spring semester for the following fiscal year. According to Maciejewski, a lot of groups have gone through the process for decades.
At this point in the semester, groups on campus have already attended the mandatory budgeting meeting and submitted their preliminary budgets. Now, council chairs have two weeks to meet twice with the signatories of each group in their council.
"There are two mandatory meetings that the signatories go to with the council chairs," Maciejewski said. "It's just a way for the council chair to get to know the group better, and for the group to actually talk about what they need…it's basically a compromise in the end."
Council IV (Religious) chairman, sophomore Stephen Ruggiero, emphasizes the necessity of the meetings in helping the groups devise an appropriate budget.
"Once I see the budget, I sit down with the signatories of each group and say ‘hey, you might need to cut some money here' or ‘you know, you may need more money here,'" Ruggiero said. "It's not necessarily going through and ripping their budget apart. It's trying to make ends meet."
They did not this past year, as the Senate was left with a surplus of over $500,000, an issue Maciejewski wanted to prevent for FY2013.
"If a third of what you allocate isn't used, I think that does indicate a larger problem," she said. "Our job is to help student programming on campus, and if a group doesn't spend money and another group needs it, it may be nice to give it to the group that needs it more. We can't really judge which group needs it more, but I think the meetings are definitely a really good time [to be] very honest and open about what [groups] want and need."
According to Maciejewski, the goal for this budgeting cycle is for groups to really consider their budgets. This year, she provided the groups with recommended ranges before submission of preliminary budgets, as well as the opportunity for an optional third meeting with council chairs.
"I think in the past, especially, people submitted the last year's budget," she said. "This year, I went through some of the financial records to see what groups actually spent on their events. I'm sure some would disagree, but some groups didn't spend much of their money at all. I did ranges so groups will think about what they actually need. We're trying to make it more accurate this year."
Assistant Treasurer Matthew Roy, a freshman, agreed that the ranges will help prevent discrepancy in policy between each group's previous leaders and the current ones.
"I feel like the issue is that we have signatories, but there's a lack of continuity," he said. "So they make a budget for the groups, but then the people who actually run the groups next year don't know what they were given money for or how to spend it."
According to Roy, the funding that groups will be given depends on how much their activities cost and their reach within the student body.
Ruggiero emphasized the factors taken into consideration for the group ranges, especially their presence on campus, in determining how much funding they may receive.
"They were given a range, based on the size of the group, the legitimacy, their history, like if they've spent their money in the past, what kind of events they throw, are their events successful, do a lot of people attend their events," he said. "There are certain groups on campus that are involved in many social aspects. Those groups are going to get more funding −− the groups that aren't exclusive and that cater to a larger population at whole."
From year to year, the allocation of a great portion of the funds to specific organizations remains consistent. Programming Board and its member groups (PBoard), including the four Class Councils, was disbursed approximately $600,000, about 40% of the allocated Student Activities Fee funds.
"We get such a huge portion of [the Student Activities Fee] because we are planning the biggest events on campus," PBoard co−chair and signatory Leo Greenberg, a senior, said. "We're serving the largest base of students, compared to some groups that primarily have funds that benefit their membership. We strive to have events where the vast majority of the student body can go."
The Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) and Tufts Hillel were both allotted a significant amount of funding as well, each receiving over $50,000. Maciejewski explained that LCS is considered an umbrella group, as a lot of sub−groups depend on it, and therefore, it requires a larger budget. Hillel, too, is a huge organization with a large following on campus, she said.
Ruggiero, council chair for the religious groups, understands the difficulty in budgeting for his council, which has an $80,000 cap.
"It's a little tricky with religious groups because there are some religious ceremonies where it's only group members or believers of that certain faith," he said. "But at the same time, a lot of religious groups throw these big social events on campus that many people from different religions attend and there's more of a social aspect than religious component."
Roy, too, offered his perspective as a council chair for Council VIII (Political) on the challenges of working with signatories to cut or add to their budgets.
"I think that there's a lot of pressure on the council chair, just because the interests of the group might not be their own," he said. "You have to keep in mind that it's what the people are passionate about."
Yet Roy emphasizes that he, like his peers, was elected to his position on the Senate and is dedicated to working with the groups throughout this process.
Greenberg praises the Treasury for the way in which it handles the budgeting cycle.
"There are certain things that weren't appropriately budgeted this year, and they're very open to hearing what our criticisms or suggestions are to make it more accurate for next year," he said. "It gives an opportunity for us to have discussions with our council chair and with the Treasury rather than them just assigning numbers."
A key component of this process is the fact that it is student−run. Despite those that actually execute the transactions and oversee the Senate, faculty members and administration do not have a significant role in the allocation of funds.
"The students pay for it, and the students benefit from it, so who better to put in charge?" Ruggiero said. "I think it's safe to say that a student knows more about the social ongoings and the general atmosphere of the campus life than an administrator would."
Whether the efforts of the ALBO so far this budgeting cycle, particularly the changes Maciejewski made with the intention of increasing accuracy and decreasing the surplus, will pay off or not is unknown −− for now.
"It's kind of a weird process because I technically won't find out the outcome of the changes until the end of my junior year, when all the money is budgeted and allocated," she said. "But, I think it will help the students more if they have accurate budgets. The ultimate goal should be the best student programming on campus."
