Fin Mackay-Boyce delivered the first full budget update to the St. Thomas University Students’ Union on Thursday. The STUSU will have a budgeted surplus of $197 if the number of students paying fees remains the same as what is projected.
The union expects revenues of $285,550 from the fees of 2,475 full-time students, 175 part-time students, and $1,000 of Pepsi revenues. According to Jeffrey Carleton, communications director, as of Oct. 1 STU has 2,376 full-time students.
No money has been spent from the activities line yet. The activities line budget is $10,000.
“All the stuff that have really been activities so far, our concert, Welcome Week, or different events so far have been residence or Welcome Week themed. They haven’t been specific STUSU events,” Mackay-Boyce said.
The student activities committee is in charge of planning the events funded from that line. They plan events like the winter and spring formals. Winter formal is being planned for Dec. 4. No details are available yet about the location or theme.
STUSU budgets $6,000 a year for academic assistance. There is $5,600 left in the line.
“Academic assistance doesn’t really pick up until people start going to conferences,” Mackay-Boyce said.
He said the finance committee has only received one request for academic assistance so far.
Most of the money spent has been from the emergency bursaries line. The STUSU budgeted $22,500 for emergency bursaries this year. There have been requests almost every week and the emergency bursaries committee has given out a total of $8,752 to students in need.
“We lowered emergency bursaries by a little bit this year,” Mackay-Boyce said.
Last year $25,000 was budgeted.
The most underused budget line is the clubs and societies line. Only $173 has been spent so far. Six thousand dollars is budgeted to cover activities and events put on by clubs and societies throughout the year.
Five thousand dollars was budgeted for STUgendas this year. Once the last of the ad revenues come in there will be $470 remaining. Mackay-Boyce expects to use this to supplement another line later in the year as needed.
“We would have had more, but some of the money came in the form of in-kind donations. Some of the pizza at events, we’ve been covering that through the ad in the STUgenda. Panago has been supplying pizza to a couple of different events both through Welcome Week and through the ad in the agenda,” Mackay-Boyce said.
Students who want to apply for funding from the STUSU can fill out a form at the help desk.
