ASUP will present a plan to reduce spending to accommodate for a previous budget oversight
By Abby Black
Deliberations on the proposed ASUP spring budget will take place Monday afternoon.
The plan, presented at the ASUP meeting last week, calls for a reduction in spending from fall, when student clubs received $257,579. The plan for the spring semester calls for clubs to receive $195,000.
ASUP Treasurer Benjamin Taketa said that with 10 more clubs vying for money this spring, the Finance Committee faced tough decisions. But Taketa said the main reason for the cuts is because ASUP has less money.
The reduction is due to an error made by previous ASUP officials as they tracked "carryover" funds from a prior semester, the treasurer said.
The error centered around officials forgetting they had already allocated a portion of their carryover money to their general budget, Taketa said. The result was the funds were double counted in both the fall '07 and spring '08 budgets.
Last week, The Beacon erroneously reported the oversight totaled $11,000. The oversight actually totaled $50,793.
Taketa said the cuts in the proposed budget were made according to organization priorities, historical and or other factual issues, and whether items and events are considered truly necessary.
Under the proposed budget, many groups will see much less money than ?their leaders requested. The International Club, for instance, requested $11,067, but was awarded $4,934 in the proposed budget. Mock Trial club asked for $20,310, but was given $2,900 under the proposed plan.
Student Activities requested $12,118, but was awarded $7,022. The only club to be awarded the full amount its leaders requested was the UP Women's Water Polo club, which asked for $185.
Taketa said the Finance Committee, working with the Office of the Controller and the Office of Student Activities, conducted an audit to identify and remedy the budget discrepancies after the error was discovered.
As a result, the Finance Committee has proposed to take a larger role in the oversight forecast for future semesters. That role would include requiring monthly reconciliations between the ASUP transaction book and the ledger statement from the Office of the Controller as well as the creation of an end-of-the-semester statement that summarizes transactions and account statuses.
The audit also uncovered that ASUP had not been reimbursed by the University for agreed-upon Capital Improvement Projects, including the replacement of carpeting in the St. Mary's Student Center and the Pilot House patio project.
University administrators reportedly have informed ASUP officials that the $10,000 carpet cost will be reimbursed ?in January.
The reimbursement of $15,000 for the patio project is still ?up in the air, Jeromy Koffler, director ?of Student Activities, told The Beacon.
ASUP Vice President Allison Able said a decision on the budget could be made at Monday's meeting, but more likely, the vote would come the following week, at the ASUP meeting on Dec. 1.
"It could be voted on the 24th but usually we take an additional week," Able said.
Both meetings will take place in St. Mary's to accommodate the larger number of students expected for the deliberations and vote, Koffler said. The meetings begin at 4:30 p.m.
