Chairman of the Student Organization Resource Fee board Jim Maskeri wants registered student organizations to be prepared for a decreased availability of funds next year.
Maskeri said that four years ago the SORF board came very close to overspending their budget, and the following year, the board made major cuts to their allocations and ended the year with what Maskeri referred to as a “very large surplus.”
Since then, the board has been trying to reduce the surplus and intends on spending until they reach a balance just over $0.
“The students who are contributing to the SORF fund should be the ones reaping the benefits,” Maskeri said.
This year, the surplus will be fully spent, and Maskeri said he is concerned that next academic year, student groups will only receive a fraction of the reimbursements they applied to receive in the past, as the SORF board’s standards have been more generous than they would have been otherwise.
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According to an Oct. 31 report from the Student Fee Advisory Committee, the SORF board requesteda $3.51 increase in their fee for fiscal year 2014, increasing the overall fee to $8.86. The committee did not recommend that 60.38 percent increase, instead recommending an increase of $0.15, which increases the overall fee to $5.50. This fee increase is currently pending action from the board of trustees.
Maskeri said the $0.15 increase will only yield $12,500 more annually, which would only cover about two of the 13,000 organizations’ allocations.
Shao Guo, vice chairman of the SORF board, said applications increase from year to year, and it is difficult to allocate the fund’s money based on fairness.
“One of the missions of this University is to support public service and outreach, and there would be less of that if there would be less activity from the RSOs,” he said.
Maskeri said he is not sure what the board will do next year to accommodate for the lack of a surplus. He said they may cut fund allocation across the board or they may cut down specific categories.
“There are shrinking budgets all over the place, and unfortunately … the SORF (board) has done nothing wrong and the student body has done nothing wrong and the administration has done nothing wrong,” he said. “It is simply the fact that we are operating without a surplus that will necessitate cuts next year.”
Tyler can be reached at [email protected].
