Allocating the SGA budget surplus

"We have a lot of money and we want make sure that we are using our money to the benefit of the students," said Student Government Association President Raina Bretan '10, in reference to the budget surplus of approximately $400,000 to $500,000.

"It's tough to peg down an exact number for the surplus. It kind of depends on the assumptions that you use because some monies you could consider to be already allocated for projects that are coming down the line in the next few years. Some of the money is also completely free to use. So, it's a pretty complicated thing really," said SGA Vice President for Financial Affairs Jim Welsh '10.

The money that constitutes the surplus comes from two primary sources, the first being the student activity fee. Every student pays a student activity fee of $319.50 that is included with the tuition cost.

"We budget everything each year. But, say a club is given $5,000. Sometimes it might only spend $3,000 or $4,000. So, that extra $1,000 or $2,000 is left unused at the end of the year. All of that adds up every year, some years to a pretty significant amount. And over time that has built up to several hundred thousand dollars now," Welsh said.

The second cause of the surplus is an over-enrollment of students. The college typically budgets for 2,280 students each year. Because of the recession, the college has been enrolling anywhere from 80-100 more students for the last few years than it typically does. This allows the college to gain more tuition dollars. But, each year SGA only budgets for the 2,280 students.

"Say there's 100 extra students, we still get the student activity fee for them, but not until the end of the year, so we can't really budget for it at the beginning of the year. For instance, something like that would be an extra $30,000 or $40,000 at the end of that year. That money builds up as well," Welsh said.

SGA is meant to use student activity fees during the year in which they are paid. "SGA shouldn't really be in the business of holding a lot of unallocated money because our purpose is to provide programming for the students who are on campus now. So, having all this money unallocated essentially means that we're not using our money and fulfilling our mission appropriately," Bretan said.

Several ideas have been proposed concerning how to spend the surplus money. "We're reaching out and looking to pursue different projects," Bretan said.

Although it has not been finalized, SGA is focusing most of its efforts on using the surplus money to fund 30 internship awards a year of approximately $2,500 each, for a span of five years. "If you did the math, that's about $75,000 a year for five years," Welsh said.

"Each award would function as a stipend for students whose internships would otherwise be unpaid. Too many students have to choose to work retail for pay over the summer rather than building their resumes. Skidmore does not provide enough of these stipends and SGA plans to supplement that deficit," Bretan said.

There are five internship awards available through Career Services: The Doyle Family Internship Award, The Alumni Board Internship Award, The Susan Hirsch Schwartz '68 Stipend Fund, The Skidmore Parent Award (Anonymous Gift) and The Skidmore Parent's Council Summer Internship Award. Some internship awards are also offered through academic departments.

SGA is looking to at least triple the amount of internship awards available on campus. "I think Student Government is really responsible for making sure that students have a lot of opportunities and this is the perfect way to use the money," Bretan said.

SGA is creating criteria for the internship awards and working closely with Career Services to promote the opportunity. All students will be able to apply through a small committee of students, faculty and administrators who will decide upon the recipients. SGA would prefer that students secure an internship before applying for an award.

"There will be a resolution coming to Senate Tuesday to get approval to spend the money on this. We're looking to do the first round of 30 awards this coming summer. We've been trying to move pretty quick on it, to get it up and running because the application deadline will probably be sometime in April," Welsh said.

It has also been suggested that the surplus money be used to make improvements to Falstaff's, including renovation to expand the building as well as updates to sound equipment, lighting devices and furniture. Other common spaces, including the Case Center, the Spa and the programming room, may undergo updates. "I think that the changes to the Spa will happen pretty quickly, certainly before next school year. Sometimes the construction projects tend to go over the summer," Welsh said.

"We also played around with the idea of funding all halls and study breaks because the program has been cut as a result of budget cuts," Bretan said. Structures that SGA owns could also use replacing. SGA owns a stage, currently in storage, that is used for Student Entertainment Committee concerts and convocation, among other things. "It's falling apart and in really bad shape, so we're looking to potentially replace that. That'll be a pretty significant expenditure in the range of tens of thousands of dollars," Welsh said. SGA might also create an application process where clubs could apply for additional funding. "We would set aside a portion of money where clubs would be able to apply for, say, a certain piece of equipment or technology that it hasn't had in the past," Welsh said. Welsh estimated that clubs should be able to apply for funds before the end of the school year.

SGA would also like to rectify the lack of rehearsal and storage space on campus. "A lot of clubs and organizations don't have enough space to store their materials. Specifically, clubs do not have space to perform, storage is secondary," Bretan said. Although many ideas are in the works concerning how to use the SGA surplus, nothing has been finalized. SGA is still taking suggestions about what needs to be done on campus and what the surplus funds should be used for. "There is absolutely nothing official yet. We still have a lot of resolutions to draft and I know that a lot of new senators are taking things up," Bretan said.