New funding coming for student activities

ASG Finance Council to distribute $200,000

By Nicole Donner

The Associated Student Government Finance Council not only faces the task of preparing next year’s budget but also this year’s budget due to the student fee increase.

For now, according to ASG Vice President Sean Robinson, $200,000 earned from the student fee increase approved by the MHCCD board last spring is sitting in an account awaiting allocation into certain groups. As approval of the $1 increase of the student fee was still underway, last year’s finance council was forced to approve a budget without extra money.

“When they wrote the budget, they didn’t write the student fees into the budget,” said Robinson. “That would’ve been ridiculous – you can’t count [real] money and potential money.”

The budget for this year was completed on time in February. While the student fee increase made its way through MHCC’s government, nearly failing in the student senate, the budget was represented with two promises for the student government.

One promise was that the student government will be able to devote $10,000 to go toward the Early Childhood Learning Center.

The second promise was for more money to go toward the Health and Wellness Center. Both were agreed on and both promises have been fulfilled, according to Robinson.

While the school entered the slumber of summer break, the extra funds went unnoticed by ASG members until mid-July when ASG President Jay Sabin, Robinson, and last year’s Finance Director Marci Husby began work on the budget.

“[After] the student fee was passed, and I take personal responsibility for this, I never asked about it,” said Robinson. “I never asked, ‘Let’s see what the budget is now with the student fee increase.’ Nobody did.”

Robinson said he noticed there were 10 percent increases for most programs but not all. According to the formal process to pass a student fee budget, the Finance Council must approve the budget before it can be handed to the ASG Executive Cabinet.

“I have no problem with most of it; there’s chunks with it I’ll argue with,” said Robinson. “The problem is it was never presented to [the finance council] and it’s part of the formal process and you have to approve the budget.”

Some co-curricular activities received a boost in their budget such as MHCC’s radio station KMHC. Their budget went from $5,475 without the student fee increase to $10,230 with the increase. Another program that received a big jump was the Forensics team when their originally planned $28,000 to $34,800. A program that received a decrease in funds is money for “Art Gallery/Performances” when their funds shrank from an original $7,000 to $5,895.

Though nobody has been held accountable for the modified budget, Robinson says it wasn’t “malicious” or “evil.”

The first action Robinson took was contacting Executive Dean of Student Development Rob Nielson and had the budget accounts frozen to the budget that was approved.

Athletics and co-curricular activities have been able to access the money pre-approved by the council but the money earned from the student fee has yet to be divided.

Robinson drafted a letter to all staff letting them know of the situation and his need to gather a finance council earlier than expected this year.

At the first meeting for the council, few showed up and there was little to no panic from clubs and athletics.

“I expected a firestorm,” said Robinson. “I was expecting a lot of the teachers to be angry that we froze it, I was expecting the worst.”

For the time being, the student fee increase remains untouchable by all groups until this year’s Finance Council can come to an agreement of allocating the fees to the appropriate groups.

Robinson hopes that the council will be finished with this year’s budget by the end of November and begin work on next year’s budget.

Meetings for the Finance Council are Tuesdays at 8 a.m. in the Council Chambers.