Student groups and organizations at William Jewell College receive their budgets in various ways. Some groups are funded by the College, such as College Union Activities (CUA) and Student Senate, while most groups are required to be financially self-sufficient. However, the College aims to provide support to all organizations.
New student groups on campus are provided with $200 as a starting budget. If the group requires more funding, it must do its own fundraising. The starting budget is provided only for a group’s first year.
“Each organization is expected to be sustainable by your own fundraising efforts or dues. There are some organizations that collect dues from members. So we just like each person, each organization, to think about that as they’re going through the process [of organizing],” said Shelly King, Dean of Students.
However, groups can go to Student Life and request more funds. The groups must present a specific reason or event for which the extra money is needed.
“It’s not to say that you might come in and ask for funding for something. If you guys have a speaker that fits your student organization, you can go to Senate, you can come to Student Life or CUA and say, ‘Hey, let’s collaborate,’” said King.
CUA and Student Senate are fully funded by the Activities Fund. The Activities Fund comes out of student tuition. Senate and CUA are given set budgets from the College because they do programming for the student body as a whole, not only a specific group of students.
“The CUA budget is for everyone. Take full advantage of your activity fee by going to everything that’s programmed. Don’t leave college without [going],” said Kristin Wooldridge, Coordinator of Student Activities.
The budgets for CUA and Senate are usually the same every year. However, this year, Senate received a larger budget than in the past. The funds were specified to be given out to other groups on campus.
“This is the first year we dropped extra money in their budget, but typically Senate’s budget is the same every year. With the idea that they’re programming and they’re doing great, they know to come to Student Life and say, ‘Hey, we’re almost out of budget dollars, can we collaborate and can we kind of pair together and both sponsor this,’ and we’ve done that quite a bit,” said King.
Senate has always had money set aside to give out to student organizations that request it. Student groups that would like to receive more money can attend meetings and request more from cabinet members. The increase in this aspect of the budget came about because cabinet members from the previous school year requested it. The increase is also meant to go toward more Student Senate programming.
“Senate has always had that aspect [of giving funds to organizations]. They’re programming more because we like Senate to program. Not only give money away, but do more,” said Tracy Hart, administrative assistant.
This aspect of Senate may seem new, but in reality, it has always been in place. It has been a lesser known practice.
“I think they’re just telling people better about that,” said Wooldridge.
Senate often teams up with Student Life to provide more funds to student groups on campus who request it. It is often a collaborative effort.
“With other groups that will come, sometimes we’ll say, ‘You know what, if Senate gives money, we’ll match what Senate gives,’ up to a certain dollar amount,” said King.
While most organizations keep any surplus budget at the end of the fiscal year, Senate and CUA’s leftover dollar amounts are returned to the school. This is because the two groups do not fundraise independently of the College.
If student organizations are in need of more money, they can go to Senate or Student Life for assistance.
“Our student leaders, they’re very creative and when you’re trying to do some really good positive things, we don’t want the money to be a hindrance for you doing these great things for the student body. So let us step in and we’ll help fund some of it. Because we want students to enjoy and not be held back by their budget when they’re doing really great, quality things for our student body,” said King.