How TWUSA plans to spend your money
Did you know that sixty dollars out of each full-time student’s tuition money is put towards the Trinity Western University Student Association’s 2008-09 budget? Are you aware that your money is being used to fund a variety of student activities, from Harvestfest and pancake breakfasts to toga parties and the Grad dinner? This is the reason for the whiteboards that you may have noticed scattered about campus over the past weeks.
TWUSA held their Annual General Meeting on Oct.2, primarily to inform students on how their funds are allocated for student activities.
TWUSA President Brian Weir began the AGM by mentioning some of the issues that TWUSA plans to address this school year, including counseling services, the extension of library hours, the construction of a new chapel, additional fees for recreation services and the TWU accountability process. He emphasized that student input is essential to making the right changes around campus this year.
Kelsey Wallace, TWUSA vice president of finance, introduced this year’s $238,047 budget. The money is dispersed throughout the various departments of council. TWUSA has budgeted $69,845 for their administration expenses, including items such as member stipends and retreats, not to mention the money that covers the expense of free coffee and weekly pancake breakfasts, and the cost of maintaining a copier. Under this budget, TWUSA has also budgeted $4,550 for the TWUSA Express, but is also looking into student bus passes.
The communications budget of $3,030 was presented; its purpose is to cover the costs of promoting TWUSA and its events. The events budget came in at $8,264. This budget is intended to cover events such as Harvestfest and the Spring Hootenanny.
This year’s budget also includes some compensation for last years’ errors: $613 was included in this budget to cover the cost of renting the ice rink for last year’s Can-Am hockey game. When asked about this, TWUSA director of events Brendan Pogue explained that TWUSA ’07-‘08 neglected to budget for the cost of renting the ice rink, and the money had to be taken from a different account in order to make the payment at the time. The money is included in this year’s budget to compensate for the fact that it was not budgeted last year.
The class reps budget landed at $9,550—this money is intended to cover expenses for events such as Iron Chef, Post-Midterms Game Night, a Toga Party and the spring Grad Banquet. Mars’ Hill presented a budget of $40,428, and the Pillar Yearbook’s 08-09 proposed budget was $58,203.
Despite all the talk of numbers, the biggest issue at the AGM seemed to be that of informing the students on how their money is being spent. Various members of the audience criticized TWUSA for poor promotion of the AGM. TWUSA members debated whether or not their year-end report should be printed on paper or published on the web; the budget for tangible year-end reports was eventually reallocated to the proposals budget – a controversial move.
The proposals budget – money TWUSA allocates to clubs and entities on campus on a need basis – suffered from cuts this year; only $5,692 ended up in the fund.
Overall, all money talks came back to the student body: “The changes that we want to make require student involvement,” Weir said.
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