In light of an unusually large surplus generated during the last academic year, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) unanimously voted on Sunday to pass the Campus Initiative Fund proposal. This proposal will use a portion of the surplus to support student projects and services throughout this year. This fund is intended to be a one-time solution, but its passing demonstrates a marked improvement in Student Budget Committee (SBC) operations from 2009, when former SBC Chair Chris Goy ’09 intentionally set aside $50,000 of student funding to place into the WSA endowment, allegedly without the knowledge of the Assembly.
“[The response from the WSA] was very positive,” said Student Budget Committee (SBC) Chair Andrew Huynh ’11, who helped spearhead the Campus Initiative Fund proposal. “There was a very big concern about what we would do if we didn’t end up spending all of the surplus money, because that would repeat the process of having a surplus, to which we’ve emphasized repeatedly that any leftover money at the end of the school year would just be placed in the endowment. We’re not here to squander the money; we’re here to try and help students more than we normally could have.”
Unless another initiative is approved by three-quarters of its members, the WSA is required by its by-laws to funnel any surplus funds into the WSA endowment, the first and only student-run endowment in the nation. This year, however, due to the unusually large surplus of approximately $68,155, the Campus Initiative Fund was proposed as a way to use the money to benefit students now.
WSA representatives claim that certain past members have not always shown such concern for funding the projects of current students. According to past and present members, Goy knowingly set aside funds to feed into the endowment.
“Basically, the 2008-2009 academic year was the first year that the WSA endowment was in effect,” said Ben Firke ‘12, Vice President of the WSA. “Chris Goy believed very strongly in growing the endowment very fast right at the start of the game, so he basically set aside money [meant] for the SBC budget for the endowment, so that when students thought that the SBC had run out of money, it hadn’t. There was still this $50,000 cushion that went into the endowment. He didn’t tell anyone about this, and we only found out about it last year. If we had known about it at the time, we wouldn’t have let it happen, and it will not happen again. But obviously that’s not the way the endowment is meant to run.”
Goy, however, insisted that setting aside these funds was a group endeavor, and was not done at his own discretion.
“Many members of the WSA and SBC shared my hopes that we might be able to start a nest egg for future Wesleyan generations to benefit from,” Goy wrote in an e-mail to the Argus. “Furthermore, if you take the time to speak to any of the members of the WSA Executive Committee and/or the SBC at that time, they can attest that it was indeed our intention to earmark some funds for the initial deposit into the new endowment.”
One former member of the WSA who wished to remain anonymous challenged Goy’s statements.
“Goy is full of shit,” the former member said. “Ever since the endowment was first introduced in 2008, the intent was for the SBC to try to spend all its money on student groups; only funds leftover or reallocated would go to the endowment. Goy budgeted towards a $50,000 surplus without approval—or even consultation—with the Assembly, and deprived many student groups of money that year. The following year’s leadership changed that practice and fully funded every meritorious request.”
On Feb. 27, 2009, Goy published a Wespeak warning students that funds were already running low at $60,000 and requested that student groups consider the scarcity of SBC resources before making requests for funding. According to Goy, the number he published in his Wespeak did include the $50,000 earmarked for the endowment.
Although Goy had earmarked a larger sum, the surplus at the end of the 2008-2009 year actually amounted to $43,000.
The SBC has run a surplus each year since the Student Activities Fee, which each student pays annually, was raised from $214 to $270 in 2006. When the WSA endowment was created in spring 2008, the surplus was estimated to reach $20,000, but, according to former WSA Representative Bradley Spahn ’11, actually amounted to $150,000.
“I can’t give definitive numbers because I wasn’t on the WSA at the time, but my understanding is that the $150,000 that was discovered was actually a reflection of many years of past SBC and WSA Office surpluses that had been accumulating without the Assembly’s knowledge,” said Huynh. “Then everything went automated and that was discovered.”
Spahn, however, insisted that the $150,000 surplus could not have included funds from past years.
“In the 2006-2007 year, the SBC basically spent all of their money,” Spahn said. “The reason the Student Activities Fee was raised in 2007 was because the SBC effectively ran out of money the year before—so the surplus was all from that year. A small part of that was money that the SBC never allocated, but the vast majority was money that was allocated but never used.”
Whatever the source of the excessive 2007-2008 surplus, the SBC has since made increasing steps toward transparency, according to Huynh. Thanks to the efforts of former WSA President Mike Pernick ’10 and former SBC Chair Charlie Kurose ’10, all SBC allocations can be viewed on the WSA website. Allocations, which are made each Monday night, are automatically updated through an on-line system.
With the passing of the Campus Initiative Fund, the WSA also appears to be reacting to student concerns about large surpluses being placed into the WSA endowment. Although the endowment was created in order to someday eliminate the $270 Student Activities Fee, some have argued that this system forces current students to fund future activities that occur long after they graduate.
“I don’t think that the SBC allocates too little,” said Spahn, who expressed several concerns about the SBC surpluses during last year’s WSA elections. “I’ve always been satisfied with my SBC allocations, but it’s certainly true that if they’re not spending it, then they should return the money. I think [the Campus Initiative Fund is] a great way, and I fully support that idea.”
The Fund will support projects or services that benefit the campus at large, rather than a single student group. The Fund was developed cooperatively by the Wesleyan Endowment Committee (WEC), the WSA Executive Committee, and members of the SBC. The SBC plans to begin accepting proposals from all students by mid- to late-November and may do so again before spring break next semester. If any money remains in the Fund, it will be allocated on a rolling basis until the end of the year.
“We are actually looking at targeted dates as to when we review and then we will approve or deny allocation requests,” Huynh said. “Because we want to make room so that big proposals have the chance to get the funding that they need or deserve, we’re going to have something like two or three fixed allocation points. We have to emphasize that if there’s a really big initiative that would be great for the student body, you should try to get it in sooner, because that’s when the money’s actually there.”
Although he is enthusiastic about the project, Huynh added that he is working to ensure such a measure is not necessary in the future.
“[Pursuing the Campus Initiative Fund again] is on future SBC chairs, but I’m going to try very hard to make sure that the SBC surplus in the amount we saw this year does not happen again,” Huynh said. “The WSA is very excited that this fund passed unanimously, and we’re excited to use this money to benefit student life as best as possible now.”
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