RSO budgets were finalized by the ASFLC Wednesday at their meeting.
Due to a shortfall of funds available through the Student Activity fee, all RSO IIs had their budgets cut by 8.89 percent, an amount that totals $8,960 according to Resolution 16-033. Additionally, the RSO I event and travel grant fund was cut by $1,040, or 6.5 percent.
The Senate voted unanimously to pass the resolution, which describes why the cuts were needed and how they would be applied.
Under the resolution, all RSO IIs will have their budget cut by an equal percentage. As an RSO II The ASFLC itself was included in the cuts, losing $1,013.
Other clubs affected include Student Union Productions, Village Aid Project, Wanbli Ota, WellPAC, Club Del Centro and The Independent.
The Environmental Center, which is technically an RSO III, was also affected by these cuts.
All of these organization had their budgets cut because they are funded by student fees, which are charged on a per credit hour basis.
According to the resolution, enrollment this year was approximately 6 percent lower than expected. The resulting loss in expected student fees was around $28,000.
In past years $.01 per credit hour yielded $1,000 in student fees, Mason Shea, vice president of the ASFLC, said.
However, recently this has changed, Shea said.
“The numbers now show that a cent equals $900, not $1,000,” Shea said.
This is because the total number of credit hours being taking at FLC has dropped due to a combination of factors, which include lower enrollment and the number of total credit hours being taken by students under the new three-credit system, Connor Cafferty, student body president, said.
To make up for this loss, the Senate has agreed to withdraw $18,000 from this year’s unallocated fund, on top of the $18,000 withdrawn in the spring semester for RSO budgets. The remaining $10,000 deficit will be covered by the budget cuts.
The resolution, which had been previously discussed, passed without debate.
Student fees and general budget concerns dominated much of the night’s discussion.
“I would be really thinking about anticipating the needs of the future years of Fort Lewis College,” Cafferty said.
It will likely be necessary to raise student fees by $.30 a credit in order to cover the cost of a contract with Durango Transit, Shea said. Another $.55 will be needed to offset the deficit caused by low enrollment.
“Personally I would be in favor of seeing the activity fee go up $.20 just for the funding of RSOs,” Cafferty said.
This would mean a total increase of about one dollar per credit hour, Cafferty said. While the increase it not ideal, the student activity fee is one of the smaller fees students pay and covers a wide range of activities.
“It’s the fee that we’re trying to stretch the most,” he said.
The rise in student fees will be necessary to stop constantly cutting RSO budgets, he said. Last year the ASFLC cut some RSO IIs by up to sixty percent of their requested budget.
“Is that what we want the table to be doing every year?” said Cafferty. “Because I think not, and I think our RSOs are suffering in a pretty major way because of our budget restraints.”