Apr. 19 , 2007

Senate's leftover money to cool down the Gathering Place
Chris Lieb
cjl001@marietta.edu

Every student organization on campus, from CUB to IFC, is given money from Student Senate to spend in any appropriate way it decides. Student Senate in turn gets the $96,000 it allocates to these organizations from the student activities fee every student pays each year. Every Marietta College student pays to fund the clubs on campus via Senate.

The last few years, about $21,000 has been sitting unused in the Student Senate coffers. Recent rumors have surfaced, suggesting that the College wants to take the money out of the account. According to Nick Aylward, Student Senate Treasurer, that is not true.

Student Senate has two accounts, the operating and reserve budgets. Aylward said, “In previous years, anything left over in the operating budget went straight into the reserve at the end of the year.” The extra $21,000 is in the reserve budget.

If you are not an Accounting major, think of the reserve budget as leftover money saved for emergencies, a rainy day fund.

According to Aylward, “This year, since there’s so much left over in the reserve budget, the Cabinet of the College (one of MC’s governing bodies) is encouraging Senate to do something with it. Anything left over is going to revert back to the college,” although he added that the college understands the importance of a reserve budget and does not want to get rid of it. The Cabinet of the College would like Senate to use some.

“There are departments struggling to get by, and Senate has $21,000 sitting there.”
With this in mind, Aylward and Senate are not planning on going on a spending spree, but they are looking into responsible ways to use some of this money.

One proposed idea is to help pay for air conditioning for the Gathering Place. Estimated at a total cost of $28,000, Nick said that Student Senate is prepared to offer $12,000 while the College covers the rest of the cost.

Students have complained for years that the Gathering Place, a focal point of student activities, has not had air conditioning. The sweltering Marietta weather in the hottest months of spring and fall more than warrants this project.

As Aylward said, the Gathering Place is a “student activity oriented place, so what better way to spend student activity money?”