Student groups receive reduced SOOF funds for second consecutive year

For the second year in a row, undergraduate student government leaders are set to allocate student groups about $35,000 less from a fund meant to support them.

The Student Organizations Operational Fund, commonly known as SOOF, saw a drop in funds this year due to an increase in expenses for building maintenance, pension contribution, benefits and stipends, among other costs, said Patty Zimmerman, student government services manager, in an email. Funding for SOOF is determined after administrative costs and council office funding is subtracted from the overall budget.

Despite the funding drop, it is unclear how large of an impact the decrease will have on student groups, that often do not spend all of its funds.

Student groups may apply for the fund until Friday. SOOF can be used to pay for supplies, advertising and retreats for group members, among various other operational expenses. Groups can apply for funding in either the fall or winter quarter of each school year.

Spending reports from the past five years show that many groups that received SOOF funds did not spend all of their allocated money. About one-third of recipients typically do not spend any of the money they are allocated, said Justine Pascual, Undergraduate Students Association Council budget review director.

SOOF contains about $69,000 for the 2014-2015 school year, which is about $35,000 less than last year and about half of what it contained just two years ago, Pascual said.

Last fall, more than 230 student groups applied for SOOF and saw their allocations decrease from the previous year. Each group received about $370 on average.

SOOF money that goes unspent by student groups is placed in the USAC surplus account at the end of the fiscal year. Some of the surplus is later distributed among USAC programming and contingency funds, which are also available to student groups.

USAC President Devin Murphy said he thinks groups may not spend their SOOF money because they do not know how to fill out the requisition forms necessary to use the available money or they did not know what they could purchase with their money. These reasons, combined with the increasing use of private funding sources by groups could explain why groups tend to underspend their SOOF money, Murphy added.

Michael Ruder, a fourth-year cognitive science student and co-director of Camp Kesem at UCLA, said he thinks the requisition process for SOOF allocations can be confusing and require a lot of time and effort from student group leaders.

“SOOF can be like the DMV of UCLA,” Ruder said. “There are so many hoops to jump through that I can see how it could be discouraging and easier to just not spend the money and have to deal with the whole process.”

Last year, Ruder said Camp Kesem spent all of its $382 allocation, despite the largely negative experience its officers had with the SOOF application and requisition process, Ruder said. However, Camp Kesem did not spend any of its SOOF allocation for the 2012-2013 school year, which Ruder said was because group members forgot about the money amid the much larger pot of outside funding the group has.

Last year, Climatepedia, a club that aims to provide information about climate change to students, only spent about 60 percent of its SOOF allocation. Siena Duplan, Climatepedia’s director of finance and marketing, said the group did not spend much of its $220 allocation because other funding sources, such as private donations and The Green Initiative Fund, were more convenient.

“At the end of the day, whichever process is more streamlined in reimbursing our members is what we are going to use,” Duplan said.

Though the exact decreases in student group allocations are not yet clear, several student government leaders said they are looking for ways to address inconsistencies in the pool of SOOF funds.

USAC officials, including Murphy and Pascual, said they are currently working with the Student Government Accounting office to understand why much of the money from SOOF goes unspent.

“Student organizations understand the funding climate and know how to function at a high level with the resources they are given, which often leads to increased sources of outside funding,” Pascual said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to find the root of this issue and help groups maximize their spending potential with what USAC can do for them.”

Throughout this year, Pascual said she will study the system and survey student groups to help understand how they use funding and how the system could be improved.

“We’re not here to blame student groups and scrutinize their spending,” Murphy said. “We’re here to change the systems in which we work to get better results for students.”

Reform options include eliminating the current form of SOOF and putting the money into other USAC funds. Murphy said he may also consider placing a SOOF referendum on an elections ballot to provide the fund with consistent funding through a small student fee. However, he said he wants to keep SOOF an independent funding pool because groups are accustomed to it and it can help with day-to-day group functions.

Until USAC completes any reforms, Murphy said he thinks the council needs to do a better job of informing students about funding options and spending procedures, so student groups feel more comfortable using their SOOF money.