Wayne State College’s student senate held a meeting to discuss club allocations meetings to allow club leaders to ask questions and express concerns last Wednesday, the 13, and again on Thursday, the 14, at 7 p.m.
Student senate was represented by Student Body President Addie Hejl, Vice President Ashley Schemek and Director of Student Activities and senate advisor Amy White.
The meeting began with Hejl and Shemek giving an overview of what happened last year in terms of money allocation. Hejl said last year’s budget was over by $63,000 and allocations for the 2023-2024 school year were lower than expected.
Hejl said when she received the number for allocation money the student body would be receiving, she planned to turn to the reserve fund to bail them out. Hejl spoke with accounting, and realized the reserve fund didn’t exist.
The reserve fund money student senate thought they had was actually money included in the overall budget student senate receives.
On allocations day last year, the student senate planned to give $550,000 to clubs. When the new president and vice president stepped into office this year, accounting told them their total budget was $522,000.
This meant student senate was now $30,000 over budget right out of the gate.
Student senate pulled $63,000 from club allocations with the goal of having money to hand out throughout the year. Student senate said they looked at previous spending trends and the allocations binder to see how clubs were planning to spend their money.
The groups that took the biggest hits were the Student Activities Boar, which lost $30,000, and club sports, which lost $20,000. The $30,000 SAB lost was originally allocated to make their bi-annual concerts a yearly event, but the concerts will remain a bi-annual event.
Student senate reviewed a breakdown of the club sport money used and decided to take the $20,000 reserve fund saved in the case of a club sport making nationals and used this as allocation money. Hejl said in the event of a club sport team making nationals, they can go to student senate and request money.
Student senate receives up to 4 percent of student activity fees, which totaled about $25,000 this year. Hejl said student senate is cutting their budget as much as possible to have more money to hand out. Student senate will be using the least amount of money possible while staying afloat, and focusing on what makes student senate, student senate. The focus will be on things such as club and organization insurance, restocking products for the feminine hygiene initiative and payment for campus groups.
Student senate has three advisors: C.D. Douglas, vice president for student affairs, Ben Vilkas, education professor, and Amy White, director of student activities.
White said advisors sometimes take on the responsibility of advising clubs without realizing what that means, but she hopes to educate advisors on how to best support organization leaders.
The advisors part of the allocation process were told several times they needed to speak with someone from Hahn Administration in the accounting office.
“I don’t want to point fingers or play the blame game, but the simple fact is that our advisor for years, C.D. Douglas, has been telling us that money is not a problem, because I think he also had the misunderstanding of this reserve fund,” said Hejl.
Hejl said that the misunderstanding of a reserve fund can be traced back as far as five WSC student senate presidents. Since student senate has a rollover fund, not a reserve fund, the idea of a reserve fund fueled the mishandling of allocation money.
All information given regarding allocations so far will stay the same for the entirety of the school year. Nonessentials and apparel are restricted to 20 percent of the allocation budget while the other 80 percent can be used for anything else.
White said allocations are to be used for things such as programs, initiatives, training, and workshops, as they benefit the entire student body. The entire idea of the student activity fee is to benefit the student body, which is why it’s allocated to the student organizations.
“When you use your allocations to travel like that, yes it’s benefiting your organization and those 8 members that are traveling to Kansas City to go participate in this competition and represent Wayne State College, and that’s wonderful, but only those eight students are receiving the benefit of that student activity fee that the entire student body has paid into,” White said.
Student senate highlighted other ways for clubs and organizations to receive money and iterated that student senate is not the only place money can come from.
The department chairs also receive a budget to hand out to different groups and organizations. Instead of going to senate to request money, student senate suggests groups within departments, such as honor societies, turn to the department chairs for financial issues.
Schemek discussed fundraising as an option for clubs seeking more money and suggested groups hosting events on campus charge an admission fee in order to raise money. Money gained from fundraisers requires an off-campus account in order to keep fundraising money and allocation money separate.
White said allocations are put into expenditure accounts, so money cannot be deposited into the account. Fundraising that includes food must go through Chartwells, so more information can be found on waynestate.catertrax.com.
Student senate discussed a few ideas to ensure an overextension of club allocations won’t happen again. Schemek said student senate is working on revamping the paperwork clubs fill out for allocation day to allow more room and include everything each club does, such as fundraising and events. Student senate also discussed changing allocation day, as the current schedule allows only the previous year’s senate to vote on plans for the upcoming year.
Club allocations are founded upon student activity fees, which means this number changes throughout the year and an exact number is not known until October 15. Since student activity fees are based off enrollment, the $522,000 will inevitably go down as the year progresses as students drop out and leave WSC.
White said that often times, her office feels less like a student activities office, and more like a travel agency. Her office, room 12G in the Student Center, will still be the central place to handle all paperwork associated with travels. Any travel covered by allocations will still go through her office.
White reached out to club advisors and set up two advisor workshops. These one-hour workshops will take place Sept. 28 and Oct. 12. Advisors will be taught how to handle travel for clubs and organizations, including hotel bookings, flight planning and conference registration. Advisors are able to work with their departments or the accounting office if a procurement card (college credit card) is needed. Advisors will receive an updated student organization handbook and those unable to attend the workshop will electronically receive a summary of everything discussed.
White also plans to gather student organization leaders from the 107+ clubs, groups and organizations monthly to talk about what’s going on, ask questions and talk about different resources on campus sometime in late October or early November.
Moving forward, student senate plans to have monthly meetings with accounting and possibly request a monthly report. Another idea was to bring in a financial advisor from the accounting department.
Griffin Ryan and Coen Herrig, co-chairs for club oversight, welcome any and all questions, comments, or concerns and encourage WSC students and club leaders to reach out.
For anyone that wants to remain anonymous, student senate has placed a suggestion box outside of their office.
“We’re in our office all the time, you can also email us if you have any suggestions. We are more than willing to take them right now,” said Schemek. “We want this to be the year of efficiency and building, not of our firepit, but hopefully our budget.”
