With more than $1 million in extra cash, the student government has more money than it knows what to do with.
As of the end of last school year, the ASUO had $800,000 in over-realized funds-money that has not been budgeted for but charged to students-that has been accruing for two years in an interest-bearing account.
The Student Senate has $240,000 in surplus in another account.
Previously, student leaders have spent over-realized money on revamping the EMU Amphitheater and on installing solar panels on the EMU; last year’s Senate discussed the possibility of using its surplus to fund a new bike rack.
This year’s student government, however, has yet to come up with any concrete ideas about how to spend the money.
“It means a lot to have that much money,” said Sen. Jonathan Rosenberg, a Senate Finance Committee member. “It means even more how we use that money.”
The over-realized money is the result of more students than expected enrolling at the University. The Programs Finance Committee, the panel that awards money from incidental fees to student groups annually, takes figures from University administration and calculates the amount of fees per student needed to cover the upcoming year’s budget.
Last year, the PFC used a figure of 17,547 fee-paying students, calculating that a $13 increase was needed to fulfill its more than $10 million budget.
Jim Blick, assistant registrar, said he calculated that 15,679 incidental fee-paying students had enrolled as of last week. Official enrollment numbers are expected to be available later this week.
If exactly 17,547 people enroll this year, the account will not grow. If more people enroll, the funds will increase.
ASUO accountant Lynn Giordano expects enrollment numbers will be larger than last year’s estimate. Either way, it is unlikely the over-realized fund will shrink, she said.
The over-realized funds are kept in two separate accounts, Giordano said. A Green Tape Notebook rule requires 5 percent of the annual budget to be kept in a prudent reserve as a precaution. The $800,000 is in addition to this reserve amount.
“It hasn’t been spent in a couple of years,” Giordano said.
Giordano said over-realized funds have traditionally been spent on “big things.”
The ASUO sponsored a contest in 2001 to determine how to spend $100,000 in over-realized funds. The resulting project was the addition of solar panels to the EMU.
In Spring 1997, the Senate allocated at least $35,000 to a $415,000 project to remodel the EMU Amphitheater.
The Senate builds its surplus with a rollover budget from year to year, and any unspent but allocated funds return to the account at the end of the school year.
Much of the Senate’s surplus comes from over-budgeting for payroll, ASUO controller Will Richard said.
“Payroll’s really hard to do because there’s so much fluctuation from year to year,” he said.
Over-budgeting payroll is a smart tactic for groups with permanent employees so that those groups may ensure employment for the entire year, he said.
In order to spend the money, Giordano said, the Senate must create and approve a proposal. The proposal then goes to ASUO President Jared Axelrod and University President Dave Frohnmayer to sign.
Sen. Athan Papailiou, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said there are students who are not receiving the benefits of their fees when more students enroll than were budgeted for.
The Finance Committee has begun discussing how it could spend surplus money. At Wednesday’s Senate meeting, the committee presented a surplus model that the Senate may use to guide surplus spending.
“The model consists of financial criteria when funding groups out of the surplus account,” Papailiou said.
Showing the Senate a fundraising effort will make groups more eligible for surplus funds under the model.
Rosenberg said the senators’ general feeling is that groups should fund-raise when they wish to spend student money not allocated by the PFC process. The model does not qualify how much fundraising a group would need to do.
“Surplus is intended for one-time expenses,” Papailiou said. He said the Senate is cautious about funding programming because it wants programming and events to be self-sustaining in the future.
The committee has also discussed creating a Senate-specific reserve fund to ensure future Senates will have access to surplus dollars.
The Senate voted Wednesday to send the surplus model to the rules committee.
“We want to ensure there’s surplus the following year, and we don’t spend it all in one year,” Papailiou said.
Rosenberg said the committee wants students to know about the funds.
“It’s not that we have a lot of money as the Student Senate,” he said. “We have a lot of money as students. The Student Senate, more than anything, wants student input on how to spend this money.”
Rosenberg said the Finance Committee is focusing on short-term projects it could do to benefit fee-paying students.
Papailiou said the committee is open to all ideas.
“Unlike other branches of the ASUO, the finance committee is committed to transparency,” he said.
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