ACTIVITIES BUDGET

FISCAL YEAR 2012

DRAFT

FINANCE & APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

Dear Student Organizations and Interested Parties,

The GUSA Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee is excited to release the fiscal year 2012
Draft Student Activities Budget. Much time and effort went into creating a thoughtful, fair, and
responsible budget.

The recently passed SAFE Reform referendum made this year’s Budget Summit different than
previous ones. SAFE Reform more than doubled the amount of money available for allocation to
student activities, giving much needed financial support to student organizations.

Under the old policy, students paid a $100 Student Activities Fee, half of which was allocated to
student groups and half of which was put towards the Student Activities Endowment. SAFE
Reform raised the Student Activities Fee to $125 for the 2011-12 school year and $150 for the
2012-2013 school year. In addition, all money collected from the Fee is now allocated to student
groups, and following the 2012-13 school year the Fee will increase with inflation. Prior to SAFE
Reform, GUSA was able to allocate each year approximately $315,000 to student organizations.
Since the passage of SAFE Reform this year we are able to allocate $800,000 and next year
approximately $1,000,000 to student organizations.

Although we had more money to give out this year, we were faced with much larger funding
requests than last year. Student organizations realized that SAFE Reform meant more money was
available, and they responded by requesting more money to meet the needs of their groups. This is
a good thing and reflects the fact that student life on campus has been underfunded.

It should be noted that total funding requests for FY12 were more than $1.6 million. As noted
above, we only had $800,000 to allocate for FY12. To illustrate further the size of increase in
funding requests we received, it should be noted that the FY11 Student Activities Budget was
approximately $360,000. This means that student groups this year requested about 340% more
than they received last year. This meant that we were unable to fully fund all the advisory board
funding requests and were also unable to fund many additional requests.

Even facing this challenge, however, we were able to increase funding for every advisory board for
FY12. Under this draft budget, for example, SAC enjoys a budget allocation increase of 260% over
last year that allows them to fund SAC groups at 85% of funding guidelines, including tuition and
Coca-Cola contract money. CSJ enjoys a budget allocation increase of 143% over last year. Club
Sports enjoys a budget allocation increase of 117% over last year. The other advisory boards also
received significantly more funding than last year and this will go a long way in giving a needed
boost to student life on campus. Although these increases may seem very high, they do not even
meet the demonstrated funding need of the advisory boards, but they are significant
improvements.

In addition to advisory boards, we were able to fund a few additional items that will enhance
student life on campus. We were able to contribute funding to support and improve Traditions
Day, purchase a new van for Outdoor Education, upgrade technology in Alumni Lounge,

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implement a new software program for student groups and clubs, and ensure that the Collegiate
Readership Program is made permanent. Student life will benefit greatly from these things and
they were made possible because of SAFE Reform.

Unfortunately, there were a number of requests that we could not fund. Many of these were
important initiatives that we wanted to support, but were simply unable with the amount of
money we had compared to the size of requests. For the requests that did not receive funding we
will direct them to the GUSA Fund and Endowment Commission as possible alternatives. As a
Committee we had to set priorities, make compromises, and be realistic about what we could and
could not fund.

In considering a funding request we applied these three broad principles:

• We should give priority to the advisory boards and initiatives we funded in past years
because they depend on our support more than others;

• We should give to what benefits the most students and has the broadest impact on student
life;

• We should fund only what benefits student activities and campus life, in keeping with the
intent and purpose of the Student Activities Fee.

It is important to add that in debating SAFE Reform last semester, many raised the concern that a
flood of more money would not be good for advisory boards. Some feared they would be
overloaded with money and could not handle it responsibly. To this we responded by designing a
gradual increase in the Student Activities Fee over two years. This means that next year there will
be $200,000 more over this year available for advisory boards and student groups. It was never our
intention to give the full request to advisory boards because we wanted them to have a gradual
funding increase and adjust carefully. Next year there will be room in budget for additional
support for advisory boards and others student organizations.

The GUSA Finance & Appropriations Committee releases this Draft Student Activities Budget
hoping that it demonstrates our commitment to student life on campus and the benefits of SAFE
Reform coming to fruition.

Sincerely,

Colton Malkerson, Chair

Sandy Glassberg
Matt Morris
Chris Pigott
Tyler Sax
Nate Tisa
Sheila Walsh

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 FY2012 DRAFT STUDENT ACTIVITIES BUDGET

Organization/ FY11 FY12 FY12

Project Allocation Request Draft Allocation
GPB $42,500 $173,000 $70,000
CSJ ABSO $61,500 $173,400 $150,000
PAAC $20,000 $171,500 $40,000
Media Board $36,000 $90,000 $50,000
ABCS $115,000 $366,251 $250,000
SAC $25,000 $125,500 $90,000
GUSA* $28,000 $28,000 $27,000
SAC Office $20,000 $21,500 $20,000
Welcome Week $7,000 $13,000 $10,000
Homecoming $12,000 $22,000 $15,000
Traditions Day NA $10,000 $5,000
Outdoor Education NA $36,145 $25,000
Alumni Lounge NA $4,350 $2,500
CollegiateLink Software NA $12,500 $12,500
Readership Program NA $16,000 $14,000
Reserve $22,787 NA $19,000
Total $360,000 $1,603,281 $800,000

*$1,000 of the Official GUSA Budget is designated for the GUSA Executive Discretionary
Account and the remainder for the GUSA General Account

Any organization that applied for funding has one week to appeal its funding allocation to the
Committee before the official budget is sent to the Senate for approval. Appeals should be
emailed to GUSAFinanceAndAppropriations@gmail.com no later than March 15, 2011.

Once the Draft Student Activities Budget is released seven (non-holiday) days must elapse before
the Committee may pass the budget out of Committee. Once the budget is passed out of
Committee another seven days must elapse before the Senate may vote on it. These periods are
meant for public comment.

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 EXPLANATION OF FUNDING LEVELS FOR ADVISORY BOARDS

Georgetown Programs Board (GPB)

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate the Georgetown Program
Board $70,000 out of the $173,000 they requested for the 2011-2012 year. Although our
committee could not allocate their full amount requested, this still represents a $27,500 increase
from last year’s allocation ($42,500). This increase will give GPB an opportunity to dedicate more
resources to their fall and spring concerts, while also expanding upon current programming.

Center for Social Justice Advisory Board for Student Organizations (CSJ ABSO)

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate $150,000 to the Center for
Social Justice Advisory Board for Student Organizations for 2011-2012 year. This figure represents
a 144% increase in allocations compared to FY11, which substantially increases funding to ABSO
by $88,500. This increase will fund the expansion of ABSO groups, sponsorship of Alternative
Spring Break scholarships, and the purchase of vans to be owned directly by ABSO. In addition,
the Committee’s $150,000 allocation allots $20,000 to ABSO for the purpose of restoring their
reserves to levels mandated by the Office of Student Affairs and GUSA. The Committee’s
increased allocation will allow current groups to maintain their respective levels of programming,
while also allowing for new group formation and expansion in the future.

Performing Arts Advisory Council (PAAC)

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate $40,000 to the Performing Arts
Advisory Council this year out of the $171,500 they requested. This represents an increase of
100% from last year’s $20,000 allocation. Much of this increase was made due to PAAC’s
demonstrated need for funds to maintain and refurbish their facilities. These projects include new
floors for stages and new sound systems for dance studios. Additional funding requests were met
for ticket subsidies. The greatest reasons for not fully meeting the requested funding were large
requests from other advisory boards and our decision not to at this time fund PAAC’s largest
request, a new air conditioning unit. Our committee feels that while there is a need for such a
unit, FY12 should be spent procuring a full professional assessment of the cost and exploring
possible funding from the University. We believe the allocation this year will give PAAC the
opportunity to enhance programming, facilities, and make events more affordable for the student
body.

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Media Board

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate $50,000 to the Media Board
for the 2011-2012 school year. This is a 39% increase over last year’s allocation. The Media Board
is not likely to fund groups at a higher rate, but will rather invest in capital improvements. The
extra money will likely help fund technology upgrades such as website redesigns and an upgraded
video server. The Committee did not believe two large HD cameras were necessarily at this time.
Although, like every other advisory board, the Media Board expressed their concerns with space
issues, our budget this year does not have enough room to give advisory boards the funds necessary
to invest in space improvements at this time.

Advisory Board for Club Sports (ABCS)

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate the Advisory Board to Club
Sports a total of $250,000 for FY 2011-2012. This is a 122% increase over last year’s allocation,
and is the single largest allocation made this year. Though this number is less than the amount
requested, the Committee remains receptive to the Board’s reliance on Student Activities funding
and aware of the low level at which the Board has been able to subsidize club sports teams in the
past. Increases in student funding in the next fiscal year allow for the possibility of increasing the
funds available to the Board in the future. It is our hope that ABCS will use the current year
increase to encourage the reduction of team dues and to pursue at their own discretion pilot plans
to increase team travel and tournament participation as discussed at the Budget Summit.

Student Activities Commission (SAC)

The Finance & Appropriations Committee has decided to allocate the Student Activities
Commission $90,000 out of the $125,500 they requested this year. This represents a substantial
increase of almost 300% in allocated student activity fee money from last year’s allocation
($25,000). The GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee has determined that this allocation
will allow SAC to fund approximately 85% of what the new funding guidelines stipulates after
including outside funding sources. Because of the very large requests from advisory boards this
year, unfortunately we were not able to give anyone their full request. We are confident, however,
that this drastic increase in SAC’s allocation will allow it to fund clubs at a much higher rate than
past years.

The Finance and Appropriations Commission also allocated $20,000 to the SAC Office out of the
$21,500 they requested. This is the same level that the SAC Office was allocated last year.

Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA)

The Finance and Appropriations Commission has decided to allocate $27,000 towards the Official
GUSA Budget, with $1,000 earmarked for the Executive and $26,000 for the GUSA General
Account. The Committee during SAFE Reform pledged that it would not increase the size of the
GUSA budget from last year. We kept this pledge.