SFC changes budget method

Student groups and organizations are requesting funding in new ways this year. The shift is infuriating to some and a relief to others.

After the purchase of a $100,000 budgeting software program, the Associated Students of Portland State University student fee committee is overseeing the changeover from a proprietary system used for more than a decade to one that can communicate directly with the budgeting software Portland State uses.

The move has the potential to save these groups and the university time and money. The funds come from the $216 fee that an average 12-credit student pays each term.

Alex Accetta, director of campus recreation, said that the new system, called TM1, will save its users time, since it is already formatted into language of the university’s software. He said doing this translation took four times as long as entering the budget itself.

Campus Rec’s budget is funded with nearly $2.4 million from the SFC for the 2011–12 year, out of the roughly $14 million total collected in student fees.

These student fees help fund everything from the Academic and Student Rec Center to the Electro Dance Club to the Vanguard. Changes, though seemingly unsubstantial, can affect many amenities students take for granted.

With the entire campus slated to change over to this new system, any unresolved problems have the capacity to be magnified when, for example, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences begins to use the software for its own budgeting.

“We’re the guinea pigs, figuring out the kinks,” said Aimee Shattuck, director of the Student Activities and Leadership Program.

The new software has been causing some headaches for those that have to deal with it, however.

“Everyone I’ve talked to has said it’s really confusing,” said J.T. Howard, editor-in-chief of PSU’s Rearguard.

Howard, along with others in charge of budgeting for their groups, has been attending “budget school,” which he said was, “about as fun as you’d expect.”

Because of the confusion, the deadline for budget submissions from all fee-funded areas was pushed to Monday, Nov. 19.

After this, the SFC deliberates and announces what is called an initial allocation—basically, what parts of the budget it is willing to fund, and to what extent. A group can appeal this decision, however.

Another advantage of the new system is accuracy, said Nick Rowe, chairman of the SFC.

“Ideally, there’s less room for operator error,” he said.

But along with any behind-the-scenes changes, Rowe said its best students remain unaware.

“When the [SFC] does its job, in terms of what Joe Student notices, it should be nothing.”