Bryan Wells
News Reporter

Members of the Fee Allocation Committee and the Associated Student Government have begun a semester long process to determine how much money will be budgeted for each student organization on campus. This money is made up entirely of fees paid by students of Mesa State College.
“These fees go towards financing organizations such PAC (Programming Activities Council) and the Outdoor Program as well as all student run organizations,” said Nick Lopez, ASG student body president.
FAC and ASG are not the only ones who have input as to how much money the different student organizations will receive. According to Lauren Van Roekel, the FAC chair, members of the different student organizations are asked to submit proposals and then present those proposals to the FAC in regard to how much money they believe their organization will need for the next two years. After the proposals are presented, the FAC goes over them and deliberates on which parts will be accepted.
“FAC looks over the proposals line by line. Money is put into what is effective and what works where as parts of the proposal that seem to be ineffective are cut,” said Lopez.
After FAC has deliberated on the proposals, ASG deliberates on them further. Lopez added that once the ASG Senate has approved the proposals, they are passed onto the ASG student body president where they either pass or get vetoed. After the proposals are completely approved and the entire budget is set, the amount of money students will pay in fees is assessed.
In 2008, Lopez believed the total budget came out to be about 1.3 million dollars. Student fees were set so as to cover that amount. According to Van Roekel, the new final budget should be set by Nov. 17th. Student fees will then be reassessed and will either increase or decrease depending on the total budget.
In the current economic state, Lopez said that budgeting for the student organizations can be somewhat of a balancing act as the state is giving colleges even less money than previously. He didn’t recall student fees ever decreasing and attributes this to rising prices and inflation.
“Say this year the budget comes out to be something like 1.6 million dollars,” said Lopez, “then it may be that student fees will increase but for the main part, it has always been our focus to keep student fees as low as we can.”
u
bwells@mesastate.edu