Strapped for Cash: Ithaca College Student Activities Fund Depleted

It has been a tough two weeks for student assemblies. On Feb. 9, nine Cornell Student Assembly representatives wrote a letter to the editor of the Cornell Daily Sun stating that they are “tired of acting as a wall between the students and the administration without being given real power.”

Ithaca College’s Student Government Association (SGA) has now announced that it ran out of money in its Student Activities Fund, and over-committed $2,000 to clubs. A recalculation revealed that the fund contained only $17,000, not $21,000 like the committed had believed, according to a Feb. 18 Ithacan article.

Vice-President of business and finance Brandon Xing, ’14, stated that although the Association strives to spend the whole fund by the end of the school year, running out this early in the semester would hurt student organizations. The absence of funds will entirely affect student organizations that did not request funds from the SGA by or on February 18.

Whereas the article elicited no comments on twitter or The Ithacan’s website, a few students and alumni voiced their disappointment on The Ithacan’s Facebook post. Facebook user Meghan Dailey wrote, “The fact that Ithaca College is one of the most expensive colleges, but can’t fund organizations for the students’ [sic] it is supposed to be serving is a testament to the terrible appropriation of money by upper management in this place.”

Ithaca College’s 2013-2014 Financial Report states that its endowment was $268, 214, 127 in 2014. Additionally, Ithaca College renovated the Hill Center, an athletic facility, starting in 2013 to the tune of $15.5 million according to the Ithaca College website.

According to the Ithacan article, Xing has taken a reasonable, conservative approach to the problem. Xing allowed any groups that already received funding to keep their resources and encouraged organizations to fundraise on their own, stating that organizations should “participate more heavily on fundraising and raising funds from outside sources — particularly student organizations that know they will incur specific costs every semester.”