As the looming recession creates increased need for financial aid, Northwestern administrators will have less, if any, money to give student groups through discretionary funds, Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis said.
“I won’t have the kind of resources I’ve had in the past,” Banis said.
Administrators usually have money left over from the previous school year that they are allowed to use as needed. Traditionally, some of this money is given to student groups that petition for extra funding. Candidates typically include Associated Student Government-funded heavyweights like Mayfest and many non-ASG-recognized groups that receive a large part of their budgets from administrative and academic offices.
But this year, the university has to tighten its belt in order to preserve financial aid, Banis said. These cuts in the school’s overall budget trickle down to the budgets of individual administrative offices and academic departments, some of which are instrumental in funding certain student groups. This leaves administrators willing to dole out discretionary funds in the past unable to do so in the current economic climate.
“What’s happening to the university is what’s happening in society,” said Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president for business and finance. “The economy is poor. We’re in a recession. Those responsible for money – whether student groups, administrators or professors – should be looking at what their resources are and should be careful.”
Wednesday, Banis warned students of tough times to come during his bi-quarterly meeting with student leaders. He explained the monetary cushion from administrators will be significantly thinner for the next two to three years.
“It’s not that we don’t want to do it,” he said. “We just have to look at what’s essential.”
This could be particularly significant for Mayfest, which normally receives a significant portion of its Dillo Day budget from administrators, according to an ASG funding guide. The idea is that if administrators give more money, Mayfest can bring a bigger headliner that will keep more students on the Lakefill and reduce excessive drinking, said Mayfest chairwoman Diana Richter. Last year, Banis helped cover security. This year he said he is uncertain what kind of contribution the Office of Student Affairs will be able to make.
ASG and Mayfest are hoping to make up some of the difference through additional funding from student government, according to the Fall Supplemental Funding guide.
Mayfest received the bulk of the money for Dillo Day 2009 from ASG last spring, when they were granted $148,640.
“This wasn’t a cut, but it also wasn’t a significant increase,” said ASG Vice President for Finance Seva Rodnyansky, a Weinberg senior.
Earlier this month, ASG allocated an additional $52,000 to Mayfest as part of its fall supplemental funding session to help “Mayfest bring the best quality programming they can schedule.”
Richter would not specify the total cost for Dillo Day 2008, which included headliners Third Eye Blind and ComMonday, but said it was more than $200,000.
“We want to see a successful student program,” Rodnyansky said. “Mayfest is a huge event and a lot of student money goes into it.”
The cutbacks could be a bigger issue for groups that operate without ASG funding.
SESP senior Shalyn Hockey is on the executive board of Global Engagement Summit and is a chairwoman of NU Conference on Human Rights. Neither group receives ASG funding from the Student Activities Fee. Instead, they depend on funding from the offices of the provost and the president, which is significantly less this year.
“We had a 30 percent decrease in the amount Bienen gave us,” Hockey said. “We had to cut back on our own budgets.”
She said she was confident in both groups’ ability to creatively raise the money they need and that it remained in their best interest not to gain ASG recognition.
“I can speak for Conference on Human Rights when I say we can get more funding not through ASG,” Hockey said. She said the group found ASG “bureaucratic and inefficient,” and would not be able to fund the conference, which cost $70,000 last year.
Still, Hockey said GES and NUCHR will have to think creatively to pay for their events this year.
According to Banis, this will likely be the case for all student groups.
“This is uncharted territory for all of us,” he said. “We have to look at what’s prudent.”
