What would you do if you were folding your laundry and found a little cash - say $115,000? That's exactly the question that has faced USG this year, after they discovered a sizeable budget surplus that had gone unnoticed for years. The found funds were the result of an outdated bookkeeping system that rounded fractions of cents incorrectly over the course of many years, according to USG president Ryan McHardy, an 8th-semester political science major.
When USG sat down to decide what should be done with the found funds, several ideas were floated, including putting the money directly into the Funding Board, which approves funding requests from individual student groups, returning the money to students by reducing USG student fees or spreading the money between several different uses. In the end it was this last plan that was accepted, with $25,000 going to fund the GUARD Dogs Safe Ride Program, $8,000 for improvements to the USG office and the Student Organization Center (SOC) and the remaining funds, approximately $82,000, going to the Funding Board, according to McHardy.
Originally, USG had requested a student fee increase of $10 to take effect in fiscal year 2011, but recently withdrew the request. USG currently receives $70 per student in student fees.
"It's our policy to be prudent with student fees," McHardy said. "You don't want to play a guessing game."
McHardy said that the fee increase had been requested in anticipation of continuing to fund the GUARD Dogs program after the newly found funds were used up. However, USG hopes that in a few years the program will become self-sustaining through private donations.
"Without [spending this money], we wouldn't have been able to keep [GUARD Dogs] running," McHardy said. "And it's an important program that gets a lot of use."
The found funds have also been used to increase the amount of money USG has to offer student groups for their activities.
However, the spending plan for the funds has not been without some controversy. The roughly $8,000 spent to improve the USG office and SOC have drawn sharp criticism from opponents.
"It astounds me that the surplus is being used this way," wrote Cara McDonald, an 8th-semester biology and political science dual degree student, in an e-mail. McDonald, who is officially a presidential candidate in next week's elections, wrote, "It should be saved and used in years to come."
McDonald, a friend of former USG comptroller Louis Gentile who resigned in early February, asserts that the funds should have been used to give students some student fee relief.
"When the former comptroller, Louis Gentile, suggested returning some of the fee money to the students to cut down the surplus, the rest of the USG executives thought it would look bad and rejected the idea," McDonald said. "Under their reasoning it doesn't look bad to waste money on piles of loosely circulated newspapers [referring to the USG New York Times Readership pilot program], or buy gaming consoles for the office."
However, McHardy pointed out that while the money is not being returned to students, they are not losing any money either, since the rounding errors that created this fund occurred over the last 10 years or so.
USG has used the money to asses ways to improve their office and improve the SOC, which is a space adjoining the USG offices that serves as an open, no-reservations-needed meeting area for student groups and provides services such as photocopying, funding assistance and storage.
"It's a space for students and it helps to cut a lot of bureaucracy [in getting space for a group's activities and events]," McHardy said. "The student culture of involvement is highly valued and we felt we'd be remiss not to help fund it."
The improvements to the SOC include increased furniture and overall services.
Additionally, USG hired an office consultant to assess physical ways for USG to improve their office. Following the suggestions of this consultant, USG this year has restructured the way it does business, decreased the number of employees on its payroll and invested in new furniture to give the office a more professional face.
Another goal of the office improvements has been to increase the interest of senators in spending time in the USG offices. To this end, USG has purchased a large LCD TV, X-Box 360, the video game "Rock Band" and leather lounge furniture, which has been set up in a back room of the USG office. According to McHardy, these items help to create an environment that increases and retains USG participation. McHardy said this has helped create a culture of involvement within USG, and added that student groups are welcome to borrow the TV and gaming systems for their meetings.
"Any time we're doing something to make USG better we're making it better able to serve the students," McHardy said.
McHardy says one of the greatest aspects of the office's facelift is the effect it has had on overall participation in USG.
"This year we have the highest retention and participation level in the history of USG," McHardy said.
This high level of involvement is a marked difference from recent years when retention and participation was so low that USG was often unable to pass proposals because they could not reach a quorum, which is half the senate plus one.
"It's a complex formula and this is part of it," McHardy said. "We've really turned [the USG office] into a real office."
The new furniture in the office, which is concentrated in the president's office, was specifically purchased from a cheaper vendor than university furniture usually is since USG is not bound by the university's contracts with vendors, according to McHardy. This allowed USG to buy significantly more professional looking furniture while spending less money.
Contact Tim Bleasdale at
Timothy.Bleasdale@UConn.edu.
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