Student Senate Allocation Decisions 2011-2012 Part 1

April 16, 2011 in Snips

(This is part 1. Read part 2 over here)Student Senate receives almost half a million dollars a year from the university to be allocated towards the funding of student clubs and organizations on campus. Clubs are divided into two categories: twelve major clubs and over a hundred minor clubs.
Centives decided to use data published by student senate over here (pdf warning) to analyze senate’s funding decisions for the year 2011-2012. We excluded all clubs that were marked inactive or had their accounts frozen from the analysis leaving eighty minor clubs.
Overall senate allocated $1,805.22 more towards these clubs for 2011-2012, a 4% increase from the previous year, above and beyond the 2.1% inflation rate seen so far this year. This meant that on average each minor club got a budget increase of $22.57. 46 clubs got a budget increase, 22 clubs had their budget remain at the same level and 12 clubs had their budgets cut. On average minor clubs received a total of $524.94 from senate with Asian Cultural Society topping the charts by receiving $3,000.
The club with the largest percentage increase in funding was World Affairs Club which had its budget go up by 200% from $25 to $75. The American Medical Women Association had the largest percentage decrease, losing 60% of its budget by going from $50 to $20. (Probably because they only requested $20.00).

Most clubs saw their budgets increase in % terms

Largest Percentage Increases in Budgets

Largest Percentage Decreases in Budgets
200%

World Affairs Club

-60%

American Medical Women Association
156%

Business Careers in Entertainment

-49%

Progressive Student Alliance
100%

The Music Box

-20%

Association of Computing Machinery
100%

Model United Nations

-15%

College Republicans
100%

Philosophy

-10%

Women in Business
100%

Chi Epsilon

-10%

National Society of Black Engineers
100%

Wall Street Club

-8%

Medical Society
Phi Sigma Pi had its budget increased from $1,500 to $1,650, the additional $150 being the largest budget increase among all clubs. The National Society of Black Engineers had its budget slashed from $3,000 to $2,700, the $300 cut was the largest among all clubs.

On average each club could expect to see a budget increase of $22.57

Largest Dollar Increases in Budgets

Largest Dollar Decreases in Budgets
$150.00

Phi Sigma Pi

-$300.00

National Society of Black Engineers
$125.00

Model United Nations

-$176.56

Progressive Student Alliance
$117.20

Business Careers in Entertainment

-$100.00

College Republicans
Student Senate makes a distinction between requested funds and allowable funds. Requested funding is the total amount of money that clubs request. Altogether minor clubs requested over $300,000. Student Senate then goes through its allocation guidelines (pdf warning) to see how much of the requested funding is allowable. 39 clubs followed the allocations guidelines perfectly and 100% of their requested funding was deemed allowable. College Republicans had the worst record with only 22% of their requested funding being marked allowable. (As an interesting side note the College Republicans requested about $20,000 more from senate than College Democrats. College Republicans also received $225 more than the College Democrats.) Clubs that better followed the allocations guidelines received a larger budget increase suggesting that Student Senate rewarded clubs for faithfully following the guidelines although the relationship was small

The vast majority of clubs submitted a budget that was more than 90% approvable

Smallest % of Budget Allowable
22%

College Republicans
30%

American Chemical Society
34%

Schools for Schools
Student Senate then makes its funding decisions based on the allowable amounts and does not consider the amounts requested. $262,086.77 of the funding requests were allowable and since $1,805.22 was allocated that meant that on average a club only received 16% of the funds that it correctly requested under the guidelines. Five clubs received the full amount allowable and were fully funded. On the other end of the spectrum two clubs received only 1% of the allowable amount that they requested. The first was the club called Anime Eki Animation which requested $10,453 but only received $50. The second was the Association of Computing Machinery which requested $3,061 but received $40.

Most clubs received less than 50% of the allowable amounts they’d requested in funding

Highest % of Budget Funded

Lowest % of Budget Funded
100%

Alpha Phi Omega

1%

Anime Eki Animation
100%

Business Careers in Entertainment

1%

Association of Computing Machinery
100%

Investment Management Group

2%

Turkish Student Association
100%

Real Estate Club

2%

The Music Box
100%

American Medical Women Association

2%

Swing Club
Senate organizes the minor clubs into seven categories and next week Centives will look at how the different categories fared.(Read part 2 over here)

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