Campus programming funds put crunch on student groups
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Though the dollars keep shrinking, the bottom line for campus programming remains the same.
Program Board, Greek Life and registered student organizations will not have the luxury of increased funds for the new school year.
The campus programming fund, which is formed from student’s tuition, will be $826,000 for the 2010-2011 academic year; the same amount it was last year.
“We have the same demand for programming but as inflation continues to rise those dollars don’t go as far,” said Brittany Mouzourakis, Student Government Association president. “The trends that we are seeing are that, as the years are going by and CPF is not increasing, we’re seeing less and less money left over at the end of the year.”
The CPF provides money to a wide variety of organizations on campus including Program Board, SGA, the Office of Student Life, Greek Life, the Leadership Institute, the Volunteer Center, University Recreation and almost all registered student organizations.
Last year, the SGA made a push to increase the CPF to $1 million. Though that effort was unsuccessful, Mouzourakis, a Garden City senior, said the SGA put in an application for a decrease in funding so more money could be freed up for other projects.
“We kept our promise to promote more fiscal responsibility with student’s dollars by asking for about $1,000 less than the year before,” Mouzourakis said. “We also decreased our stipends by 20 percent.”
History
The CPF was created in 2001 and was originally called the Campus Programming Fee, said Tony Voisin, director of Student Life. Voisin said the amount of money each student contributed to the fund was determined by the amount of credit hours they were taking that semester.
That year Central Michigan University’s roughly 18,000 students’ fees resulted in a CPF of approximately $860,000, depending on total credit hours taken that year.
When the CMU Promise was created in 2006, it eliminated all fees. Therefore the name was changed to the campus programming fund and the amount was flatly defined at $800,000, Voisin said.
“The costs for things have gone up dramatically since the fund’s creation, yet the amount of money in it has gone down,” Voisin said. “It makes it especially hard for groups like Program Board to bring entertainment to campus.”
The amount of money placed in the fund changes from year to year. Each July, the main 13 selected organizations that fall under CPF (including the Student Budget Allocation Committee which allocates finances to nearly all of the 270 RSOs on campus) present proposals to a committee in July requesting the amount of money they feel will be needed for the upcoming school year.
Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe approves the final list of the amounts each organization will receive.
Reductions
Voisin said the Leadership Institute took a large hit this year, losing $15,000 of funding due to a loss of employees. Program Board also endured a budget reduction, from $300,000 to $293,000 this year.
Steve Lewis, president of Program Board, said while the organization hoped to receive about $10,000 more than they did, they also planned on receiving the lower figure.
Despite the decrease in funding, the Allegan junior said they were able to bring musical group We the Kings to campus on Oct. 10.
“We really wanted to focus on getting big name people to campus, but a show like that usually costs at least $100,000 or more,” Lewis said. “I think we’ll still be able to bring good events to campus. We’ll just have to be even more conscious of the budget than normal and more creative with how we use the money.”
Any money leftover in the CPF remains within the fund and is rolled over into the next year. In the early-to-mid 2000’s Voisin said the CPF would sometimes have around $50,000 left over. Last year, Voisin estimated that number to be around $5,000.
He said each group basically used all of the money allocated to them. While that number varies from year to year, Voisin said it is always their goal to have money left over.
Retention
SGA Vice President Dave Breed, a Muskegon senior, said the CPF can influence the retention rate at Central Michigan University.
“CPF dollars go toward the events that keep students around,” he said. “The more that students feel engaged on campus, the more likely they are to stay. If there weren’t enough opportunities for them to get involved they could choose another university.”
Breed said while SGA will continue to push for an increase in CPF, they remain realistic it may not happen right away due to the current economic climate.
“The university and the state are in a world of hurt right now,” Voisin said. “It’s going to be a tough task to get (CPF) increased dramatically.”
