Funding cuts have fueled questions about the allocations made by the Club Coordination Council to campus clubs.
Each year, the CCC is charged with the vast responsibility of allocating money to each of the clubs on campus.
While the CCC does receive a large sum of money to divide between 200 student clubs, they often cannot meet each club's financial needs. This year, some clubs have seen their budgets cut from the amount they received last year.
Last spring, the CCC requested additional funding of approximately $64,000 because according to the request printed in the budget "over 45 clubs did not submit a budget to the council" before the CCC had to make their request to the FMB. The CCC was only granted an extra $20,000.
This year, the CCC was allocated $286,258, including the additional $20,000, which was up from last year's allocation of $258,194.
The money the CCC receives comes from the budget the Financial Management Board develops every spring. The total amount the FMB can allocate to Student Union groups comes from the every student's Student Activity fee and from part of the profits made by The Shirt. The CCC is guaranteed 36.75 percent of this total amount every year, but they can request additional money.
"The CCC interviews all the clubs and compiles a single request for money from the FMB based on the club requests. We always request more money than it is possible to get," said CCC President Seth O'Donnell.
Despite the increase in the CCC's fund, some clubs' budgets were still cut from last year.
Eric Wooldridge, president of Circle K, said the club's allocation was cut 9 percent from last year. He said that the amount of money they received from the CCC was not enough to cover all their costs for the year.
"We were able to get a donation from a former member of ours, and we've been able to cover all our plans, but not exclusively from the CCC allocation," Wooldridge said.
According to O'Donnell, these cuts aren't the fault of the CCC.
"It's hard to compare last year to this year because this is the first year we've had a performing arts division, and it looks like there is less money per division," he said. "There are a ton of different variables [for allocating money], and there is an ever increasing number of clubs asking for money."
This year, according to O'Donnell, about 20 new clubs requested money from the CCC. Because of this, O'Donnell said that in addition to the extra money the CCC granted these new clubs, it needed to increase the money placed into its contingency fund.
"Because there are so many new clubs, we allocated more money to our contingency fund this year so that our new clubs wouldn't just die out," said O'Donnell. "All clubs are eligible for money from these [contingency] funds." So far about five clubs have appealed for more money, according to O'Donnell.
Wooldridge says Circle K plans to appeal for more funds.
"We plan on appealing for money for at least one project with another club," said Wooldridge. There are no specific plans yet for this event.
At the Campus Wide Fair on Oct. 4, any club participating and providing food was allotted $150. O'Donnell would not specify where the money for the food allotment came from, though he did say that the event was co-sponsored by the Office of the Student Body President.
Additionally, the CCC instituted a new policy this year that required all clubs to internally raise additional funds of at least 20 percent of their allocation from CCC. According to Jaclyn Ballotta, chair of the CCC's social service division, most clubs can do this by charging dues for their club members, but social service clubs generally do not charge dues.
"The main reason [for the 20 percent requirement] is that as we get more clubs, we are requiring that they do some sort of fundraising, so that they actively look for money in other areas," she said. "Clubs in other areas are required to charge dues, but we don't feel like people should have to pay to do service."
Ballotta acknowledges that it may be hard for a service club to raise money, but maintains that it is not something clubs cannot do.
"I agree that it is difficult for service clubs to fundraise," Ballota said. "It doesn't have to be too much of a hardship if they are pretty proactive. We're more than willing to help in any way, shape or form."
Ballotta said that if a club has difficulties raising money, they can contact the CCC for help, but she says they have not received any great concerns from clubs on the issue.
Concerning the allocation for clubs in her division, Ballotta said, "We try to give the clubs as much as we possibly can ... We try our best to match what they got last year."
However, O'Donnell said that there is no rule regarding consistency in allocations.
"There is no policy of matching any previous allocation," he said. "Every year, a club must go through the same process ... The CCC always will request the amount of money it needs to best fund clubs. We are here to help clubs as much as possible."
