The Government of the Student Body’s capital projects account has a negative balance $102,286.50 because of what is believed to be an error related to an incorrect enrollment count.

“The enrollment count that we were using was higher than the actual enrollment, which then correlated to the fees that we collected being lower than we anticipated. And that’s what resulted in the over-allocation,” said Spencer Hughes, president of GSB.

GSB’s investment account, known as the reserve account, contains $105,764.52. GSB acquired this money when it sold a fleet of vehicles that were used by students; when the university began allowing students to rent vehicles, GSB sold theirs.

In an email dated Tuesday, Aug. 20, GSB Financial Director Dan Rediske recommended to the GSB Senate that the entirety of the reserve account’s balance be transferred to the capital projects account at the first meeting of the year, scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 28. The transfer requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate.

“Obviously, it took me just about by surprise as anyone else,” Rediske said. “Getting an email that tells me that one of my accounts is negative, basically out of the blue, because, I guess I had assumed the situation had been resolved. Because we knew about the situation, it had come up at one point, and as far as I know, it somewhere got lost in communication.”

Rediske said he was made aware of the account having a negative balance this August.

The capital projects account primarily receives funding from reclaimed money that was allocated the previous fiscal year. The reclaimed money is money that was not spent during its intended year.

In the last two years, Hughes said, reclaimed money brought in $88,000 and $100,000. He anticipates a similar amount being brought in this fall as well, which will be added to the capital projects account.

“Long story short, the only real outcome of this situation was that our reserve account is now empty,” Hughes said.

The amount that GSB would spend over the next year is not impacted.

Over the last couple of years, the reserve account has been used to supplement projects such as Cyclone Cinema.

Hughes said GSB will look at placing safeguards to ensure that a similar situation does not occur again. GSB proposed a student activity fee increase for the 2014-15 academic year of $1.76 per semester, a 4.9 percent increase. Part of that money would be used to relieve GSB’s current financial situation as well as to help rebuild a reserve account.

“Having looked at all of the facts and reviewed the history of the accounts, I think we’ll be able to present that information to all of the senators, show them what happened, make sure that they understand it,” said Hillary Kletscher, vice president of GSB. “And once they understand it, I think they’ll see this is an easy choice to make to move the money from the investment account to the capital projects … account.”

The capital projects account is used to fund physical items, such as bike pumps on campus. Items purchased by this account are expected to last at least three years and must be available to all students.

“These dollars are students dollars,” Hughes said. “They’re not GSB money; they’re student dollars.”

Hughes said he became aware of the situation Aug. 16. GSB was notified by Campus Organization Accounting Office that the capital projects account has a deficit.