photos from sxc.hu and by Valentin Croitoru

Growing confusion on the part of students as to what the Student Activity fee pays for and whether it would be increased over the next year brought the Director of Finance and Accounting Anelia Stoyanova to this week's SG meeting. Stoyanova answered questions dealing with the breakdown of the Student Activity fee, how much money is allocated to different areas and the reasoning behind some of the less obvious uses of the fee.

The money currently accrued by the Student Activity fee amounts to $216,260. The SG budget receives $22,334 to allocate to club expenses and $41,272 goes to fund student activities such as food expenses for on-campus events and wellness programs. $20,000 goes to the student travel fund, and $9,670 is split between the two orientation weeks at the beginning of each semester. Sports activities take up $117,188, which includes financial support for renting the sports halls and paying instructors' salaries.

An issue brought up during the meeting was the amount the fee would be increased over the next year. During one of the meetings of the Student Financial Affairs Committee the VP for Finance and Administration Alexander Alexandrov discussed with students a raise in the fee by $20 instead of the usual $10. The $10 per year increase takes into account an approximate 6 percent inflation rate as calculated by the university. Alexandrov said that he felt that some programs were deficient due to a lack of money. "(The) student travel fund and student co-ops... Those two we have had great struggles to fund appropriately," Alexandrov said. He explained that he was merely trying to act in the best interests of the students, because they are the ones who pay this fee and are directly affected by its implementation. Those who opposed the increase did so because the acceptance letters sent to students explicitly state that the increase will be $10 per year. “We were striving for not increasing Skaptopara 1 and 2 by more than $100, instead of a required increase of $220, and thus an increase in the Student Activity Fee by more than projected, personally for me, was a conflict of values," SG President Alexandru Panici said.

Sophomore Bisera Savoska raised the issue that a portion of the Student Activity fee is used to pay for the work-study of the 16 resident assistants (RAs). The rationale behind this is that RAs organize many activities that benefit students, aside from the daily shifts that they work, Stoyanova said. "When RAs do floor parties and wellness programs, the hours that they are getting paid for... go into the student activities. The rest of the hours... go to the residents halls," AUBG senior Kalina Gorinova explained. Thus, the Student Activity fee pays the RAs for duties which directly benefit the students, while their daily work shifts are covered by the residence hall budget.

Senior Todor Mitov called attention to the amount of time it has taken for the new sports facilities to be set up. The issue arises from the inefficiency of AUBG bureaucracy and sees the need for better evaluation of data on expenditure. Mitov said that he feels the amount being spent on renting sports facilities is too high. "One way to improve the process is just to dig into more of the details of how our money (is) allocated and if we can cut on something... this process can be optimized."

"(The Student Activity fee) is flexible... if you wish more (money) for student travel, then we may move some (money)," Stoyanova said. While some of the expenditures such as depreciation costs are fixed, there are some areas where mobility of funds is possible. If enough students stand in opposition to some of the applications of the Student Activity fee, it is possible to adjust allocation.

Comments

Ivaylo

0

 

 

6% inflation?? If it really was the university that estimated this figure, I'd very much like to see in which world they estimated it.

AUBG bureaucracy being inefficient? Na, not even close.

Monday 22 February 2010, 09:30

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