The Student Senate has a total surplus of $186,870 for the coming year, according to student government documents.
The money, which comes from several years of student fees, includes rollovers from last year’s surplus, unspent payroll from contracts and programs funded by the ASUO, and unspent money from student groups’ budgets. More than $30,000 comes from interest accrued during the past school year.
ASUO Vice President Chii-San SunOwen said student groups fail to use all of the surplus funds they are allocated for a variety of reasons. Some groups don’t have enough active members to spend all of their money, she said.
“Sometimes these groups have (scheduled) speakers and they cancel,” she said, which leaves a large sum of money unspent at the end of the term. That’s what happened to the Multicultural Center last year when a speaker was diagnosed with brain cancer and canceled a scheduled appearance.
Normally groups are penalized in the following year’s budget for not spending all of the surplus funds they were allocated. But exceptions can be made by the Programs Finance Committee under special circumstances, SunOwen said.
The PFC will listen to reasons for balances and “give a more human interpretation” than numbers on a budget form can provide, she said.
One group with a large balance at the end of the 2006-07 school year was the Black Student Union. According to Abrina Wheatfield, an officer in the group last year, they had budgeted money to give students gifts at graduation. A rule change from Oregon Hall barring gifts left the union with extra money and no time to spend it.
The group also had leftover funds from unused stipends, Wheatfield said. Students rejected the stipends after finding out they would be considered income when applying for financial aid and grants.
SunOwen said students rejecting stipends for financial considerations is a common problem for student groups’ budgets.
“The financial aid office is ruthless in what they’ll take away,” she said.
ASUO Finance Coordinator Matt Rose said student groups who need more money than has been budgeted to them can go to the ASUO Controllers office and fill out a special request form. Senators will decide whether to allocate the money, or perhaps to allocate less than what was asked for.
“It just depends on what the senators are looking for,” Rose said.
Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]