Union Board cuts program funding

The Union Board executive team made cuts across all programming committees’ proposals this year after receiving a less-than-expected budget from the Committee for Fee Review.

Evan Farrell, UB president, said the student-run organization expected to receive around $400,000 for the fiscal year, which runs from August to July, but instead received around $50,000 less.

“The student activity fee is divided between organizations,” Farrell said, “and we get a certain allocation every two years from the Committee for Fee Review. This year, we got about 50 cents less per student.”

But as the new Union Board administration takes over in January, budgeting issues will not be a problem, Farrell said.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
Every other year in March, the Union Board executives send a proposal to the CFR, who then lets them know by April how much the organization will receive for the next two years.
At the same time, Union Board goes through a “Big Budget” process in which each of the 13 programming committees proposes its own budget complete with how much money the committee will need for each event it wants to plan between August and July. These proposals include not only events during their term, but also annual events that take place in the spring under a new committee. Though they won’t be there to see the events through, they have to make room for them in the budget.
For the 2011—12 fiscal year, the lectures committee proposed a budget of $54,950 for programs to be held during the committee’s fall term, as well as the spring committee’s term. They received $118,200, a difference of $22,315. But that doesn’t mean they spent all $118,000.
Each event has to have a line-by-line budget passed by the executive team, Farrell said, that outlines every expense for the event.
“Typically, events run lower than budgeted,” he said. “We then put money back into the general pool.”

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES
Most events throughout the school year are planned for in Big Budget, including lectures, leadership, auxiliaries, canvas, comedy, performing arts, films and more.

Funding for events not planned in Big Budget comes from the general account, which was allotted $101,236 in the March budget summary and receives leftover funds from completed events. These remaining funds are also turned over to the incoming Union Board in January, an amount usually around $75,000, to use for their own programs.
When events go over their budgeted funds, money to make up for their losses is taken from a reserve account, Farrell said.

The reserve account takes in profits from concerts and other ticketed programs, which are planned to break even, Farrell said.

For the Lil Wayne concert in April, Union Board paid the artist $700,000 to perform, which was twice as much as the organization received in funding. But none of the artist’s fees came from the budget. Instead, the organizers determined how much funding would be needed for the artist’s and other expenses, and then developed a proposal for how many tickets had to be sold to break even. At an average ticket price of $75.04, they needed to sell 11,000 tickets. They sold 14,000, making about $40,000 in profit that went to the reserves.

When Union Board lost money on the Sarah Silverman show, funds were taken from the reserve to make up for the loss, preventing them from using student funds to pay for their mistakes.

But whether students know where their activity fee money goes or not, Farrell said he believes Union Board’s programs give them opportunities no other organizations can.
“We want to help make the student experience a stronger college experience as much as possible,” he said.