Richard Farias, director of student activities, discusses budget issues during the student services fee advisory committee meeting Thursday in Fletcher. Farias informed participants of possible budget shortfalls in the near future. Photo by Jack Jackson
District projections overestimated enrollment, which led to reduced student activity funding.
By Richard Montemayor
The Alamo Colleges might have to increase their student activity fees because low enrollment means the district cannot allocate as much funding for student activities, Richard Farias, this college’s director of student life, said April 2.
However, student leaders must ultimately be the ones to decide this, Farias told the student activity fee committee at its monthly meeting in Fletcher Administration Center.
The district had originally approved $334,000 for the student activity fee budget at all five colleges this year, Farias said.
“That budget is always based on a projection from district of what they think enrollment would be for all five of the colleges,” Farias said. “District just let us know as of today that we have a lot less than what was projected, so that $334,000 that we thought we would have is actually $290,000.”
Farias is anticipating the projection for next year would also be around $290,000.
“Three years ago, the whole budget was $400,000, so it has gone down about $100,000, so I say that to this group because we have to find a way of looking into increasing the student activity fee,” Farias said.
The fee at this college is $1 per credit hour each semester.
Farias said it would have to be the Student Government Association’s call to increase the activity fee.
In other business, Farias said no student organizations requested funding this month.
“There have been no requests yet for the $7,500 that’s reserved for $250 per club up to 30 clubs,” Farias said.
As of right now, the student activity fee budget has $860 remaining in its coffers, Farias said.
The budget does have a buffer of nearly $1,400 because some clubs had extra funds that they did not spend, he said.
However, the committee is waiting to hear from four student organizations that have not reported their spending yet.
“We are still waiting for reconciliation on four groups,” Farias said. The groups are club AMAR, which was awarded $625; the Kinesiology Club, which was awarded $3,500; ENACTUS, which was awarded $9,214; and Odyssey of the Mind; which was awarded $8,062.
The committee’s final meeting of the semester, where it will vote on next year’s budget, is at 3 p.m. May 7 in Room 323 of Fletcher.
