Part on an ongoing series about how Iowa State is responding to state budget issues

Higher membership dues and missed conferences and tournaments may become more of a reality for student organizations next year, due to a miscalculation in the amount of student fee money available to the Government of the Student Body this year, which resulted in a debt of nearly $200,000.

“A lot of student groups didn’t get what they asked for next year because of the debt. We had to turn a lot of capital requests down because we just didn’t have the money,” GSB Finance Director David Boike said. “Next year’s student organizations won’t have nice, luxurious budgets, because we had to be so hard.”

Boike said the 2001-2002 GSB finance committee overallocated $175,000 for this year because of the miscalculation. He said the miscalculation stemmed from Iowa State University administration’s overestimate of the number of students paying full student fees.

Boike said the finance committee receives a projected estimate of how many students will be enrolled at Iowa State, and then it multiplies that number by the amount of fees a single student pays to get the projected amount GSB will collect. The committee can then allocate the money to the following year’s student group budgets. But, because of the administration’s overestimation, GSB allocated more money this year than it received, leaving a $175,000 deficit.

ISU vice president of Business and Finance, Warren Madden, said the Iowa Board of Regents decided on a policy this fall to use a stairstep function, based on credit hours, to determine how much students pay in fees. He said, in the past, part-time students paid the same amount in fees as a full-time student.

“Under the previous tuition and fee structure, the university allocated a per-student dollar amount based on head count from tuition. With the new regent policy decision, however, mandatory student fees are used to fund student activities and service — not tuition — and these fees are always based on credit hours, not on head count,” Madden said. “So part-time students pay less than full time students this year.”

He said the administration’s estimate for enrollment for this year was accurate, but in effect less money was coming in because fewer students were paying the full fee. He also said the Regents decision was made after the GSB budget process had been completed.

Boike said GSB decided to swallow the debt and not cut the amount of money GSB had promised to give students this year.

GSB decided to pay for the debt by cutting the amount of money it allocated to student organizations for next year, and using the difference to pay the debt off.

GSB also passed legislation to use $90,000 in unused student fees from the Student Fee Reserve Account, $18,000 from the Fall Events Account and $45,000 from the Special Projects Account help pay off the debt.

Boike also said, since $45,000 was taken away from the Special Projects Account, GSB will have to spend less on projects that benefit students, but student organizations received that money.

Currently, GSB is still $80,000 in debt, but Boike said he plans to pay off this debt through a kickback from unused money left over from student organizations’ budgets this year.

He said he expects this kickback to pay off the remaining debt, because last year’s kickback was $122,000.

No student organizations were zero funded because GSB didn’t have enough money to fund them next year.

Jim McBreen, president of the ISU men’s rugby team, said the budget cuts will hurt the team.

“Sometimes when money is tight members have to pay their own way to the tournaments. This discourages a lot of members from coming and the club’s membership will probably decrease,” McBreen said.

He said dues will increase next year from $80 to $100.

“The biggest concern with the cuts is where we will be able to travel to for tournaments. With a loss in budget we may not be able to travel to these more established tournaments,” McBreen said. He said this could include the Big 12 tournament, where the team was recognized this year.

“We will always find ways to play because of the high level of commitment many of the members have,” McBreen said.

Kent Mickelson, treasurer of the ISU Ski and Snowboard Club, said the club tries to avoid GSB money because it’s hard to acquire and hold onto for the following year.

“We raise much more money ourselves because it’s such a pain,” Mickelson said. “We’re grateful for the money we receive, but you have to fight to keep it.”

He said the club will raise dues, because they won’t receive additional money from GSB they will need for next year’s activities.

Lee Taylor, treasurer of the ISU Railroad Club, which receives funding from GSB, said GSB cuts in funding won’t affect them. Taylor said the club only asked for mileage funding for their trips, and cuts for next year won’t affect that funding.

Boike said cuts in student organization funding will not continue into coming years, because the cuts made for next year and GSB’s redirection of money this year will be sufficient to balance the budget.