The mode of allocation for DePauw University’s student organizations is shifting to one that is leaving several student groups with less overall funding for the semester.
In the past, student groups relied mainly on a budget allocated at the beginning of the semester. However, at the start of the spring 2018 semester, several clubs had their budgets cut and were told to resort to event-by-event (EBE) funding to pay for their activities.
“The money only stretches so far,” said Alan Hill, vice president for student academic life. “There are going to be times when what the group is requesting funding for, even if approved in the past, does not necessarily mean that those students who are governing that process right now agree that those are what the funds should be allocated for.”
DePauw Student Government (DSG) is putting more stress on EBE funding, rather than a semesterly budget. Student Body President Erika Killion attributes several of the instances of budget cuts to oversight from club presidents. “Allocations board has very specific guidelines that they follow,” Killion said. “I think that some of the confusion comes from clubs just passing on information from one set of leaders to the next without actually looking at what student government wants.”
Clubs train their own officers and continue to pass down guidelines to incoming officers, according to Killion, which is why several clubs are having their budgets cut. To combat this, clubs and organizations can apply for EBE funding for specific events they wish to host.
“There is a big pot of money, and all it takes is [utilizing] event-by-event and taking advantage of that,” Vice President of Allocations Haysten Perez, said in an email interview. To prevent having budgets cut, Perez said, “clubs need to simply have more than one person look over their budgets. In the near future, I am working to change the way we submit budgets as a whole. The issues we're running into are consistent.”
Several clubs that had their budgets cut have expressed frustration in the new mode of allocations, citing a lack of communication from the beginning.
“We had our budget cut completely, everything that we requested was denied, and they said we would have to go event by event if we wanted funding,” College Democrats President Nicole Pasho said. “It was really frustrating because they didn’t very clearly explain why that happened. When I reached out to them, they just sent me the EBE form and didn’t explain why.”
Pasho also did not understand why their budget had gotten cut, because her organization submitted their budget the same way over the past three semesters and were never told that anything needed to be changed.
The same frustrations were shared by Courtney Smith, president of College Republicans, and Sheraya Smith, president of WyldLife. “Frustration is definitely there,” Sheraya Smith said, “The primary thing I’m frustrated with is that the University didn’t include the treasurer [of WyldLife] in this at all, really, and he was the one that formulated the [budget] report, asked for the funding, turned it in, and it just frustrates me that he wasn’t included.”
According to Courtney Smith, College Republicans didn’t just get their funding cut, they didn’t receive a budget altogether. “I’ve had to re-submit my budget, and I still haven’t heard anything,” Courtney Smith said. “It’s not clear where or why there are being budget cuts...There’s a lack of communication and it’s very difficult to rely on event-by-event.”
As of right now, there is no official way for clubs to appeal to DSG about their budgets.