The original headline accompanying this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
An undergraduate student government fund that helps finance student group operations experienced a more than 50 percent funding decrease from last year, largely because of an unusually small student government surplus.
Each year, a portion of the Undergraduate Students Association Council surplus is allocated toward funds that help finance student groups. This year’s surplus is smaller than last year because of a more active use of council funds on councilmember initiatives and student programming, said Cynthia Jasso, USAC Finance Committee chair.
USAC surplus funds are money carried over from one council to the next and are calculated every November. This year’s surplus was about $232,000, which is about 40 percent smaller than last year’s surplus of around $384,000.
The surplus amount is also smaller because last year’s council created a $100,000USAC endowment with the UCLA Foundation using surplus money, Jasso said.
Jasso said she thinks student groups will have more trouble getting all the funding they apply for because of this smaller surplus. She added that the smaller surplus will be felt mostly by student groups applying for money through the Undergraduate Student Association programming and contingency funds, two of the funds that will be affected.
“Funding will be very limited or student groups this year,” Jasso said.
USAC spent $80,000 of the surplus earlier this school year to fund Bruin Bash, an annual concert for students, and the Student of Color Conference, an event meant to promote education about diversity. USAC allocated about half of the remaining $152,000 of surplus money toward councilmember initiatives last week.
Following allocations for councilmember initiatives, the remaining $73,500 will be divided among three major USAC funds – the USA programming, contingency and capital contingency funds – as stated by the USAC bylaws.
These three funds, which have come to rely heavily on surplus, saw a large reduction in their allocations.
Because the capital contingency fund is typically underutilized, Jasso does not think it will be largely affected by the decreased surplus.
She added that this year’s decrease in student group funding is even more apparent because USAC and student groups have grown accustomed to having large surpluses in previous years.
USAC President John Joanino said he thinks USAC should not have a surplus at all because no funds should go unused, but the large surpluses of previous years have led USAC and student groups to rely heavily on an inconsistent source of funding.
“It’s scary how inconsistent the surplus funds are,” Joanino said.
He added that a reliance on surplus funds creates competition between councilmembers who request funding for their office initiatives and student groups who need and are accustomed to a certain level of funding from their student government.
In the next two quarters, USAC plans to discuss ways to decrease reliance on surplus funds and provide a more reliable source of student group and councilmember funding, Joanino said.
Compiled by Joseph Vescara, Bruin contributor.
Correction: The word “group” was misspelled.