The Executive Cabinet of the Associated Students of the University of Utah now has another $36,750 to work with.
On Tuesday, the ASUU General Assembly passed Joint Bill #9, a bill adding money to the budgets of 14 boards within ASUU. The increases range from $750 for the executive assistants to $4,000 each for five other boards.
Although the recent legislation increases the cabinet budgets, the original budgeting process cuts these budgets $16,500 from what they were budgeted for last year. This year’s budgets for the Executive Cabinet were originally $70,813.64 less than what last year’s cabinet actually spent. All of the boards that received money from this legislation began this year with substantially reduced budgets.
“It’s actually taking it back to last year’s budgets,” said Ben Lowe, ASUU president.
Though, some of the budgets are getting more money than they had last year through this legislation. The Diversity Board, Non-Traditional Student Services Board, Senior Class Council and Chief of Staff all have a larger budget this year than they had last year because of this legislation.
The Executive Cabinet budgets finance all of ASUU projects and activities throughout the year. The Family Fun Days come through the Non-Traditional Student Services Board, the Student Services Board financed the tailgate party ASUU sponsored and the Student Advocacy Office presents and pays for the advocacy forums.
The products of other budgets are not as easy to see, however. The Chief of Staff, who is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the other cabinet members, now has a yearly total budget of $7,500. According to Jay Hart, ASUU chief of staff, this budget goes to pay for leadership retreats, publicity T-shirts and sweatshirts and photocopies for the meetings. Hart said his budget also covers unanticipated activities such as the candlelight vigil held after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Public Relations Board now has a budget of $9,000, which will go to fund fliers, banners and posters to publicize the activities and projects of ASUU.
“The Public Relations Board is kind of the face of ASUU,” said Colter Hammer, public relations director. He said his board is also working on producing a brochure to inform students about ASUU and how they can get involved in it.
The Senior Class Council now has $2,500 more to work with than it did last year. Last year’s council did not use all of the $5,000 budgeted. According to AnnMarie Allen, senior class president, she needed this budget increase to work with because the senior class is now responsible for the Freshman Council and the Service Committee, in addition to the regular budgetary strains of graduation, homecoming and the house party at the end of the year.
According to Lowe, they based these new budgets on what the boards spent last year, how much each board has spent this year and how much was originally budgeted for each board this year.
“By giving it to the boards, it gives the boards more opportunities to fund more projects,” Lowe said. “They would run out of money if we did not augment it.”
The funds going to the Executive Cabinet are coming from the fee income fund of ASUU, a fund holding extra money not originally included in the ASUU budget. According to ASUU Accountant George Lindsey, the budget was made based on conservative projections because those making the budget were not certain how the Olympics would affect enrollment. Instead of going down, however, enrollment increased for Fall Semester.
Some of these funds automatically go to certain accounts, such as the senate contingency fund or child care, but there is still money left .
Although it is still uncertain how much will ultimately go into the fee income fund, Lowe said that there is “already more than enough to pay for everything.”