It’s the quarter million dollar question: How does FUSA spend your student fee money?
Every year, FUSA takes $85 from a general fee to finance just about everything from The Roots to make your own trucker hats at the BCC.
A total of $260,400 is collected each year from 3,500 undergraduate students.
“I’ve been here for four years,” said Christopher Taggart ’05, “and I’m still not sure where the general fee money goes.”
On May 1, FUSA President Jess DiBuono will address the student Senate with a proposal to change the FUSA budget.
But the actual budget total will not change if the proposal is passed, according to Tom Pellegrino, assistant director of student activities.
“I think this [the FUSA budget] is a more effective way of constructing the budget,” he said.
Although the new budget will not change, the technique used to budget FUSA’s expenditures will. DiBuono plans to propose a financial theory of a zero based budget, effectively starting each year from scratch.
“We will let the events dictate what the events should be,” Pellegrino said.
If the budget is approved, Pellegrino said the weekend programming will be renamed “general events;” lectures will be re-introduced into the budget; and there will be two new positions: secretary of academics and secretary of student life. Each of the two positions will be given a specific budget.
The zero based budget will allow FUSA to look at last year’s budget in terms of events, and formulate a budget plan that is more effective, according to Pellegrino.
“How we go about getting to that number will be more thorough and a more informed process,” he said.
Since the budget requests are still pending, the proposed budget information for next year is unavailable until budget requests are agreed upon and the Senate approves the proposal.
But in this year’s budget, The Roots, who will perform on April 29, cost FUSA $40,000, which does not include additional expenses like staging and security. The final bill will roughly cost FUSA $60,000, according to Pellegrino.
Last year, comedian Dave Chappelle cost FUSA $47,000, but since $21,000 was already allotted, FUSA had to make $26,000 on ticket sales. Due to the size and location of the venue, FUSA was unable to make a profit.
According to DiBuono, FUSA doesn’t make a profit with concerts or comedians.
This year, FUSA has almost spent the entire allotted budget. But according to Aaron Milazzo ’05, FUSA treasurer, this is a common practice by student governments. He said if a student government isn’t spending its money on programs, then it isn’t being efficient in programming.
According to the FUSA constitution, the Senate must approve any activities that FUSA wishes to organize over $5,000.
But Pellegrino said that programming ideas that are not a definite success are always filtered through the Senate. The Senate then votes on the idea and decides if the program should be a go or not.
This past year, the programming branch received almost $155,000 of the total budget this year. Almost $60,000 of it went to weekend programming. Although a constant rumor, Pellegrino said that the Board of Trustees does not require FUSA to produce the weekend events.
Each year, Pellegrino, a graduate assistant and three student programmers attend an event entitled the National Association of Campus Activities.
The annual conference invites numerous activity organizers to the event where they are able to showcase activities. Pellegrino said the attendees usually find effective campus events to bring to Fairfield at the conference.
It was back in the 1960s when FUSA came before the administration to ask the university to impose a fee on all students to fund programming, according to William Schimpf, vice president of student services.
The university was hesitant at first, but after a set of safe guards was instituted with a check and balance system, FUSA’s budget was approved.
“In the 60s, all the programs were done by FUSA and it has evolved over the 40 years or so,” Schimpf said.
In the 1990s the university began designing a new campus center that would be used to promote student involvement on campus.
“Our goal was to bring all the student organizations and clubs together in hopes there would be enrichment,” Schimpf said.
FUSA only used to ask for $20 from each student in the 1960s, according to Schimpf.
FUSA allocates its money between the programming branch, the executive branch, the student Senate, the student court, the Board of Governors and Residence Life, according to past FUSA president Paul Duffy ’05.
“The money is being given to be spent,” said Pellegrino.
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