Addressing the threats of student group funding

The recent move by the student councils to pilot a cosponsorship committee has once again brought the issue of student group funding into the spotlight. The desire for additional funding runs rampant among student groups. Additional funding may help groups fulfill their missions, or, for some groups, can even help them meet their basic goals of survival. While the demands for funding are endless, the total funds available are severely limited. I intend to neither defend nor denounce the current structure for student group funding, but rather to expose the realities of what exists and offer my own insight on how we can move forward.

Student group funding starts with each student government receiving a cut of $102 every semester from the $634 student life fee charged to each student annually. The four undergraduate student governments then convene at a meeting known as Funding at Columbia University, nicknamed F@CU, to decide how much money should be allocated to each of the governing boards. The governing boards then autonomously determine how to allocate their funds to student groups. Other than the incremental increases in student life fees every few years to account for inflation, the aggregate funding for student life essentially stays constant. The fluctuations governing boards and groups see in their allocations are merely a redistribution of funds within the overall structure—an increase in funding for one governing board or student group means a decrease in funding for another and vice versa.

So how do we reconcile the perpetual desire among student groups for more funding with the limitations on student governments’ own funds? There are three options I propose for consideration. First, the student councils can tighten their own belts in order to give more to governing boards, thus reducing the amount of funds that go to student council programming.  However, this reduction could adversely affect the councils’ student life initiatives, which have already been subject to student scrutiny. Nevertheless, this would only provide short-term relief because even this money comes with a limit. Second, an external source of funding can be introduced in the form of alumni. The impediment here is that any attempt to create an institutionalized system of alumni funding for student groups is likely to be met with resistance by the University administration because it is seen as a drain on alumni funding that could go toward the University’s endowment. Several past and current students leaders have toyed with the idea of establishing an endowment fund just for student groups, but for various reasons, the concept has failed to gain traction. This does not mean, however, that the idea of alumni contributions should be written off completely.

The University administration bars students from directly soliciting donations from alumni for student activities and justifiably so—students should not harass alumni from various sides for their support. What student groups should strive to do instead is establish their own alumni networks and foster close relationships with their alumni starting with the most recent graduates. Naturally, these relationships will pay off in the long run. Various groups on campus, most notably the sailing and equestrian teams, are already doing this.

The final option I propose is a unified effort by student groups on campus to combine funds to organize grand joint events. Success and growth of a student group must not be assumed to mean organizing more independent events. As groups grow, many of their missions are starting to overlap, so this would only be practical. Creativity from the side of the student groups and strong encouragement from the councils and governing boards would be more than enough to pursue this option. It’s in the best interest of the Columbia community for our groups to grow symbiotically as the burden of limited resources begins to weigh on us.

The author is a School of Engineering and Applied Science sophomore majoring in earth and environmental engineering. He is the vice president of the finance intergroup of the Engineering Student Council.