“In order to put on good events, we need more money,” said Erica Sammartino, co-chair of this year’s Serendipity. Unfortunately, Serendipity was allotted considerably less money than was requested. This year’s budget was $38,000, while Union requested $42,000.
Union is spending $20,000 on the bands,
lighting and sound. The rest is being spent on the carnival, shirts, the Bryan quad dance, and security. Also, Union’s budget, from which Serendipity in funded, was over $5,000 less than last year, down from $105,007 to $100,001. The decrease in funds allotted by Senate to Union is due to the heavy amount of requests on student activities fee money for clubs.
According to Dawn Watkins, associate dean for community activities, “Enrollment trends over the past few years affected student activities fees. While the club system has continued to grow, greater demand among all clubs has created a strain on the total pool of funds.” Such clubs include The Guilfordian ($40,000) and The Quaker ($40,000).
One of the other reasons for Union’s budgeting problems is that Union front-loaded its schedule this year while expecting more funding during the spring. “We were under the misleading impression that there would be additional funds that we could special-request in order to bolster our spring activities schedule, including Serendipity,” said Union vice-president Dain Roose-Snyder.
Fortunately, a solution to these problems is in the works. “We won’t have these budgeting problems next year because of the raise in student activities fees,” said Union treasurer Josie Black.
The student activities fees will be raised from $250 per person to $300. Accompanied by the projected increase in enrollment next year, Union and Serendipity will have larger budgets to work with.
Eric Leaf, next year’s Union president, said “Expect a good year and big stuff happening.”