Campus clubs expect increased budget for activities and events
Editor’s note: Since publishing this story on April 1, the proposed Club Operational Budget has been approved.
Planning an event, estimating costs and formally presenting a proposal to the Associated Students of Washington State University Vancouver Senate are just a few necessary steps clubs on campus have to take to receive funding from the university to host an event. That was until March 1, when ASWSUV President Vince Chavez and Student Activities Adviser Brian Van Gundy introduced a new club funding proposal for next year.
Pending approval, the Club Operational Budget (COB), a potential new budget plan for clubs on campus, is anticipated to take effect in the 2019-20 academic year. ASWSUV has requested a $60,000 budget for the first year.
“There are just a lot of new clubs with a lot of new events that our [ASWSUV Senate Allocation Pool] wasn’t prepared for,” Chavez said, when asked why the COB is being requested. “The goal for this [COB] is to provide greater access to secure and sustainable funding [for clubs].”
At the March 1 ASWSUV Senate meeting, Chavez explained the Club Operational Budget proposal in detail. According to Chavez’s powerpoint, there will be a committee made up of one member from each committee of the ASWSUV Senate, either the ASWSUV president or vice president and one representative from each club category, such as academic, cultural and recreational. The purpose of this committee, as outlined by Chavez, is to review submitted budget requests from clubs.
Currently, clubs start each academic year with an operating budget of $200 and are able to request more funding from the Senate if they determine an event they are planning or hosting will need more.
“Club leaders have shared that only being able to request funds on a per-event basis limits their ability to plan for the year,” Chavez and Van Gundy stated in a justification letter to the Student and Activities Fee Allocation Committee on March 9. The mission of this committee states that it shall, “have initial responsibility for budget levels allocated to operating, facilities and overall reserves” according to the WSU Vancouver website.
Toward the end of each academic year, campus wide organizations submit budget requests to the S&A Fee Allocation Committee for approval ahead of the next academic year. The Student and Activities Fees, according to the WSU Vancouver website, “is used to support non-academic student activities, programs and projects at WSU Vancouver.” Additionally, the site states, “These student fees are used to enrich the student experience through funding for student government, entertainment, student organizations, speakers, facilities and recreation.”
“Requesting funding from [the ASWSUV] Senate may take up to five weeks and funding is first-come, first-serve,” Chavez and Van Gundy wrote in their justification letter to the S&A Fee Allocation Committee. “Over the years, ASWSUV Senate has funded multiple large-scale, club-driven programs that have become staples of the WSU Vancouver community including Dia de los Muertos, Diwali, Noche de Familia…”
“This (COB) has the ability to really grow our clubs and help establish them at the very beginning of the year. This will allow clubs to really think about, at the beginning of the year, what they want to accomplish.”
-Brian Van Gundy, WSU Vancouver student activities adviser
The letter also explained the goals for the Club Operational Budget, “The long term plan is to allow clubs to set up a council to self-govern themselves and allocate funds. This will be similar to how the Student Media Board governs all of three of the media organizations on campus.”
Van Gundy said that in order for clubs to receive funding through the proposed Club Operational Budget (if it is approved), club leaders and members must submit a letter of justification to the COB committee (not the S&A Fee Allocation Committee) between July 31 and Aug. 25 on COUGSYNC. This letter would state the amount the club is requesting and why. If the COB is approved however a club does not wish to receive additional funding through it, the members of the club can still pursue the traditional process of requesting funds from the ASWSUV Senate.
“This has the ability to really grow our clubs and help establish them at the very beginning of the year,” Van Gundy said. “This will allow clubs to really think about, at the beginning of the year, what they want to accomplish.”