The Program Council Concert Committee tops the list of student organizations’ budgets for the 2010-11 academic year, followed by SAMSA, Intramurals, Student Foundation and the Student Senate communications committee.
The Daily Campus obtained 116 organizations’ budget requests from the Student Senate website and was able to see which organizations received the most money.
Its $105,000 budget makes the PC Concert Committee the highest initially funded organization at SMU.
The money is used to fund the Code Blue Comedy Program during the beginning of the school year and the Code Red Concert at the end of the year. PC brings in two comedians for Code Blue and one “high-profile” musician for Code Red.
PC did not put on a Code Blue program this fall. Instead they are using the money to fund two more concerts during the fall, according to Program Council President Michelle Dekkers, because the Code Blue program wasn’t bringing in enough people.
PC is working with the athletic department to put on the concerts. The first one took place Saturday.
The next one is scheduled for Homecoming.
The Student Senate Finance Committee determines how much money each organization gets each year.
Senate receives a percentage of student fees, with approximately $800,000 of that amount funding annual budgets.
Senate gives out another $40,000-$60,000 throughout the school year on a weekly basis to supplement organizations’ budgets or fund individual projects.
Senate Finance Chair Janet Leung said the finance committee determines an organization’s budget based on their spending for the previous year.
The Committee also looks at their cornerstone events, or the main events an organization puts on.
“For example, usually [Asian-American Leadership and Education Conference] is first because they’re the first one in the alphabet,” Leung said. “We fund the majority of their conference because that’s the main event they do. And we fund based on how much they spent last year—like how much is remaining in their account at that point.”
Any money not used by an organization during the year goes back to Student Senate in June.
“We also fund based on what we saw this year, like how people say it turned out, because generally there will be people that [went to the event],” Leung said. “And if they came through Senate, if they came and requested extra money, if they actually used that, and how much they have in their checking account. Obviously, if you’re wealthy in your checking account, then you probably don’t need an extra $5,000 if you have $50,000 already.”
The Student Affairs and Multicultural Students’ Association received $72,634 from Student Senate for the year.
The majority of the money is used to pay the salary and benefits of the students’ association accountant. SAMSA also funds two stipends—for a webmaster and Finance Chair.
The remaining money funds office supplies, including lamination paper and printer cartridges, and van cleaning, maintenance, insurance, registration and inspection.
Intramurals is the third-highest initially funded organization with $55,009.99 in their budget this year, followed in fourth place by Student Foundation with $50,000.
Student Foundation uses the majority of the money in its budget to fund Homecoming, Family Weekend, Mane Event and Celebration of Lights.
The Student Senate communications committee has a budget of $45,000 for the 2010-11 school year. The majority of its budget is used to buy weekly advertising space in The Daily Campus.
Senate lets other student organizations use this space to advertise for their events, since many of them cannot afford to buy space themselves.
Leung said the finance committee waits to decide on some larger budgets until the very end.
“We come back and some of them we won’t address right away because we’re just unsure depending on how much total money you have,” Leung said. “Like PC concerts, for example, we’re not going to just give them $120,000 if other organizations need it.”
