As student activities began to pick up speed in the past week, campus club presidents and leaders petitioned for funding from Associated Students. The amount of funds passed to be distributed to the clubs sector on the Associated Students’ budget increased by $8,000 between fall 2012 and fall 2013, according to AS vice president of finance Gianna Pacini.
The updated fall 2013 budget reflects the reallocation of funds to various causes across campus. For clubs, some of this money stems from what would originally have gone to hosting a fall concert, as the Chimes recently reported.
Last fall, the total budgeted amount to be given to clubs was $22,000, with only $21,058.52 actually used. This semester, the proposed amount jumped to $30,000, with the full amount being passed.
Clubs coordinator Jordan Keiter said he proposes for funding each semester, and intentionally asked to frontload the budget during the fall and request a lighter amount for the spring. This is mainly due to the imbalanced financial needs that arise when clubs require dues or are jumpstarting their organizations at the beginning of the year.
“The fall is when it’s really heavy, especially for the sports clubs,” he said. “In the spring, they’re just maintaining stuff, but in the fall, that’s when they need it. And we weren’t supporting them.”
Not all of the money that would have gone toward the fall concert is going to clubs, Pacini said. Some of it is also going toward religious lectures and rising facilities costs due to inflation. However, the decision to subsidize the residual money in the clubs fund was partially out of a desire to support students internally.
“While many of our clubs do have an outreach-minded approach, Associated Students' role is to serve the Biola community, so our funds are invested in programs like student clubs,” she said.
The final decision on how much funding each club will receive will be determined next week, according to Keiter. The senate will review the club leaders’ petitions for monies and determine whether or not to grant the funds in full, partial or not at all.
