The balance of the Student Senate’s over-realized account is still around $800,000, despite confusion over a memo that makes it seem as though the balance is more than $1.3 million.
At a meeting of the appropriations committee – the group charged with deciding how to spend the extra money – Student Senate President Sara Hamilton said that a memo from University Deputy General Counsel Randy Geller says the balance of the “Incidental Fee Clearing/Reserve Fund” (IFCR) is more than $1.3 million.
Geller’s memo, dated Feb. 12, says that the fund contains a balance “somewhat greater” than the $1,393,502 that was in the account at the start of fiscal year 2007, which began on July 1, 2006. This is not the amount the Senate has to work with, but is the total balance of a two-part fund.
Part one is a 5 percent “Prudent Reserve Fund,” which is required under ASUO rules to be saved to insure against under-realized enrollment and may only be used to address emergency budgetary shortfalls. Geller’s memo says this fund contains approximately $500,000. Geller told the Emerald the 5 percent Prudent Reserve Fund is a legal requirement. The fund must contain 5 percent of the total incidental fee budget.
The second part of the fund consists of extra incidental fee money collected when enrollment is higher than projected. This is the money the appropriations committee will be spending. Minus the $500,000 or so in the Prudent Reserve Fund, the Senate could have as much as $893,502 to work with, based on the numbers in Geller’s memo.
Hamilton said she will check with ASUO accountant Lynn Giordano to find out just how much money the appropriations committee has to allocate. Hamilton said she thinks the balance is closer to $800,000 and may be as low as $728,000 because the Senate allocated $72,000 to the Student Recreation Center to fill a state-mandated “capitalized equipment” reserve fund.
Hamilton said the Senate didn’t know the exact dollar amount of the fund at the beginning of fall term but “got stuck” on $800,000 because when combined with the $200,000 in the Senate’s surplus fund, the slogan for using the money was “How would you spend $1 million?”
Because the incidental fee is charged on a per-student, per-term basis, the part of the fund that consists of over-realized funds is constantly changing, Hamilton said. Students who leave school at the beginning of a term get fee refunds and some transfer or leave for study abroad, meaning the total enrollment is different every term.
The members of the appropriations committee are currently narrowing down more than 70 proposals for spending the over-realized money. They will host a town hall meeting at the beginning of spring term to hear opinions from the University community before presenting their final decision to the Student Senate. Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]