For the first time in over 15 years, Carnegie Mellon’s student government is planning to change the Joint Funding Committee (JFC) budget allocation process and the timeline by which the Committee on Student Organizations (CoSO) re-recognizes student organizations.
These changes aim to facilitate the JFC budget request process for student organization officers. The adjustments were voted on unanimously by the Undergraduate Student Senate on Nov. 11 and unanimously by the Graduate Student Assembly last Wednesday.
The Tartan spoke to Elizabeth Koch, director of the office of student involvement and traditions, and Elizabeth Fu, the project manager for the reorganization, to learn more about the changes being made and how student organizations can navigate their way through the new system.
The current system requires student organizations to submit an initial budget request in which they must outline the amount of money they need for different line items, with some line items having limits to how much is requested. The JFC then reviews an organization’s initial budget request to approve or deny funding requested for each line item. Student organizations have the opportunity to appeal decisions made by the JFC before the final budget is ratified. Student organization officers must also complete their student organizations’ re-recognition by CoSO in the fall semester.
The student government took inspiration from Cornell University’s model for tiered funding to create a tier system of its own. There will be about seven to eight different main funding tiers in this new system, with increasing amounts of funding being allotted to each tier. An organization that falls under a particular tier will automatically be provided with a fixed allocated budget, a budget that will be the same for all other organizations falling under that same tier. The aim is for student organizations to be guaranteed a certain amount of funding based on their tier and thus never worry about falling below that amount.
While most organizations will fall under a main tier, some organizations spend significantly larger amounts of money than others. Of these organizations, some will be placed in the general exceptions tier while others will be placed in the “Campus Services and Traditions” tier.
Organizations which are assigned the “Campus Services and Traditions” tier are those that provide a service open to the entire campus or form a part of a campus tradition and will be provided with a fixed percentage of the allocated student activities fee. Nine organizations fit this profile: Activities Board (AB), WRCT, Activities Fair, The Tartan, cmuTV, Sweepstakes, Spring Carnival, AB Tech, and EMS.
Each tier will come with a set of minimal requirements needed to remain in said tier. If a student organization fails to complete the requirements for their tier, it will be reviewed for probationary status, which could lead the organization to be demoted to a lower tier. New organizations will automatically be eligible for $500 upon recognition if requested.
For all other organizations, the JFC will look at an organization’s spending history to determine what tier they will be assigned to, a process that will occur this year.
The amount of money an organization spends will not perfectly align with the amount it receives with a tier system. If a student organization’s expenditure falls somewhere in between two tiers, they will be rounded to the nearest tier that more closely aligns with their spending history, which will lead to some organizations receiving more money and other student groups receiving less.
This was done to prevent student organizations having a surplus of unspent money. The JFC does not have the money to fund everything each organization asks for for all organizations on campus. Also, when an organization is allotted a generous amount of the budget requested, the organization doesn’t always spend it. These are issues Koch and Fu cited as propellers for the tiered system.
The student senate is also adding a supplemental funding process that will be open on a rolling basis throughout the academic year. If an organization needs additional funding, it can submit a form, which will then be reviewed by a yet-to-be-composed JFC Supplemental Funding Board. This funding board plans to review requests on a bi-weekly basis. Student organizations will also have the opportunity to move up or down a tier as they see fit.
To move up a tier, a student organization must demonstrate that they are able to spend more than that assigned to them by their tier, and they must show that they can consistently do so for at least two years.
Student organizations must still present a budget of how they plan to allocate the money they receive from JFC, although they will receive a fixed baseline. This budget will have to be submitted by the second week of classes in the fall semester.
Additionally, all organizations will have to submit an end-of-year report (EYR) which will open in the spring and be due before commencement, which will give students five to six weeks to complete the form.
The EYR combines paperwork student organizations already have to complete and will include a student organization reflection, re-recognition, funding tier review, space allocation review, and the opportunity to submit optional applications, including one to move up a tier.
The EYR aims to reduce the number of deadlines that currently exist in the system. Koch and Fu noted the oddity of having re-recognition due at the beginning of the fall semester, but having the budget request form due at the beginning of the spring semester.
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