2024-25 AS spending: Shortfalls, major proposals and prior year comparisons
A review by the Corsair of this year’s Associated Students (AS) expenditures found that AS overspent their unrestricted and Basic Needs funding accounts. However, the yearly revenues have yet to be totalled and might round out the difference.
Graph by Phoebe Huss
At Santa Monica College (SMC), the AS governing body manages over $2 million each year and allot it for various purposes, including school events, club activities, welfare initiatives, and legislative advocacy.
Every year in the fall, AS approves a budget based on both projected revenues, for certain accounts; and fixed accounts that transfer across academic years. Throughout the school year, AS reviews funding proposals submitted by campus organizations and allots money accordingly.
Graph by Phoebe Huss
All proposed expenditures must be approved by the Office of Student Life, the AS Finance Committee and the Board of Directors.
In May, the current Board of Directors and Finance Committee concluded their yearly spending at their final meeting. The Corsair reviewed all AS expenditures noted on Director meeting minutes, which are kept by the AS Secretary.
Graph by Phoebe Huss
This review revealed that AS spent about $629,000 over the 2024-25 school year, from a total of 160 proposals submitted by campus clubs and departments. The review also found that AS overspent certain accounts and generated surpluses for others.
The AS budget, mostly derived from student fees, is split into unrestricted and restricted funds, each composed of accounts. Each account has a designated purpose, as follows:
Unrestricted funds:
Activities, for AS-sponsored activities. Budgeted $80,000. Spent $63,645.03
Inter-Club Council (ICC) Allotment, supplying each club with a budget; also for ICC events. Budgeted $40,000. Spent $56,657.05
Leadership, for Director-related expenses, like stipends and nameplates. Budgeted $38,000. Spent $36,500
Office, for office supplies and equipment. Budgeted $8,000. Spent $9,928.78
Publicity, for promoting a respectable AS image and publicizing AS, ICC and clubs. Budgeted $5,000. Spent $18,550
Special Projects, for projects that support the “A.S. mission and values.” Budgeted $44,000. Spent $24,290.39
Sustainability, for sustainability resources and initiatives. Budgeted $30,000. Spent $39,970
Conferences / Memberships, for travel and conference costs including memberships. Budgeted $5,000. Spent $22,546
Elections, for publicizing elections and assisting candidates with campaign finances. Budgeted $2,000. Untouched.
Contingency, “last-minute opportunities and unexpected developments.” Budgeted $10,000. Untouched.
Though the AS approves a budget for these unrestricted accounts at the beginning of the year, the money will shift between accounts as approved by the Committee. Therefore, these accounts are only technically overspent if the unrestricted fund in general is overspent.
For 2024-25, the budgeted unrestricted fund totalled at $262,000, projected to be completely covered by revenues. However, AS spent $272,087.05 out of these accounts.
By contrast, restricted line items are alloted for “very specific purposes,” per the AS Fiscal Policy. These funds carry over each year, as well as receive revenue from fees.
Restricted funds:
Student Success, for success initiatives and resources. Beginning balance: $68,033. Spent $50,435
Cayton Center, for the center’s upkeep. Beginning balance: $1,155,391. Spent $15,404.47
Basic Needs, for initiatives like housing and food security. Beginning balance: $81,934. Spent $94,348.90
Public Relations / SMC President, for AS-President collaborations. Beginning balance: $90,982. Untouched.
Student Representation, for Student Senate of California Community Colleges (SSCCC) events and other activities related to participatory governance. Beginning balance: $211,999. Spent $92,669.92
Prior Year Surplus, for “special opportunities,” but cannot be used to “mitigate budget shortfalls or to circumvent Fiscal Policy.” Beginning balance: $163,190. Spent $104,000
Another restricted account is the AS Reserves, a rainy-day fund only to be accessed in an extreme emergency. The reserves were untouched this year. Requests to access reserves must be unanimously approved by the Finance Committee, Board of Directors, Dean of Educational Enterprise, and either the Vice President of Student Affairs, the Vice President of Business and Administration or the SMC President.
Graph by Phoebe Huss
The most expensive approved proposal this year was the 2025-26 AS operating budget of $71,200, submitted by the Office of Student Life and approved on May 19. This budget allots money from the Office, Cayton Center, Publicity, Sustainability, Leadership and Student Representation accounts. This is a typical yearly expense.
However, other big-league projects were verified by the Board and Finance Committee and are to impart novel developments on the SMC campus.
AS apportioned $45,000 from Student Success and Basic Needs for Health and Wellness vending machines. The Board also approved $24,000 from Sustainability for water bottle refill stations and another $24,000 from the Prior Year Surplus to buy hotspots for low-income students.
All three of those proposals were drafted, proposed and submitted by the Associated Students themselves.
The SMC Commencement Ceremony will be live-streamed thanks to AS appropriating $45,000 from the Prior Year Surplus. AS gave out $35,000 from Basic Needs for the SMC Foundation’s Giving Thanksgiving event in 2024, and supplied another $35,000 from the Prior Year Surplus to fund the Art Department’s Black Lunch Table.
AS solidified the most proposals that were submitted by the governing body itself, approving over 45 of its own proposals and more than $300,000 worth of funds. Their proposals included AS promotional materials, Director activities and events, and Cayton Center improvements — as well as campus-wide initiatives.
Of all approved proposals, the average cost was $3,930.91. Proposals ranged from $25 to the aforementioned $71,200.
All Basic Needs expenditures were carried out with four proposals, funding Giving Thanksgiving, care packages for unhoused students, the vending machines, and free lunch vouchers for the upcoming school year.
Departments and individual students and groups not affiliated with clubs may submit proposals if they have the support of a sponsor who is employed by the College. Students and clubs may request funds for field trips, campus events, campus projects, long-term use equipment, and supplies.
All funding proposals are submitted to the Office of Student Life, which assesses their alignment with the Fiscal Policy and AS mission.
As a governing force, AS has authority to make exceptions to the Fiscal Policy, with unanimous Committee support, including the Chair; and two-thirds Board support. For instance, the Respiratory Care Club requested and were given $5,800 to attend the 2024 AARC Congress in Orlando, Florida, despite the Fiscal Policy preventing AS from funding more than 25% of field trip expenses.
Once approved by Student Life, the Finance Committee reviews proposals and recommends them to the Board, who gives final verification.
Students who submit proposals are encouraged and often required to attend Committee meetings, present their case for their funding requests, and answer questions from Committee members.
The Finance Committee is chaired by the Director of Budget Management and consists of the AS President, Inter-Club Council (ICC) Vice Chair, Director of Sustainability, and two faculty members, from the offices of Educational Enterprise and Student Life. Two nonvoting personnel also attend the meetings and provide counsel, including the Dean of Educational Enterprise and the Associate Dean of Student Life.
Requests less than $1,000 are considered Minor Action Items.
Once approved by Finance, those items appear on the Board’s consent agenda, meaning they are collectively approved by the Board in one sweeping motion.
A Director can make an objection to a specific item, which removes the item from the consent agenda. The item is then debated and voted on individually. Otherwise, the Board will pass all consent items.
Funding proposals amounting to $1,000 or greater are voted on individually in every case. The AS Board uses a roll call vote system. Generally, the President does not vote on proposals.
In most all cases, the Board approved proposals in 2024-25 without much contention. Proposals that passed Finance and made it to the Board were always approved, although some required deliberation and occasionally tabling across multiple meetings.
Most of the AS budget is derived from the revenue of the optional Associated Students Resource Fee students may pay when they enroll in credit courses. Upon receiving the voluntary $10 payment, AS apportions the money across its restricted and unrestricted accounts that it then accesses throughout the year.
The apportionment is as follows: $2 to Student Success, $1 to Cayton Center, $1.25 to Basic Needs, $0.25 to Public Relations / SMC President, and $5.50 to the unrestricted line item fund.
Another fee that funds AS is the $2 Student Representation Fee, which is mandated by the state for the college to collect but not for students to pay. SSCCC takes $1 of this payment and the other $1 goes to Student Representation.
The Finance Committee and Board of Directors ratified several amendments to the Fiscal Policy as of this May. For instance, every club at SMC is entitled up to $750 per semester from now on, with the excess money rolling over from Fall to Spring.
However, in the previous version of the Policy, applying to this past school year, clubs were granted up to $600. As a result, many clubs pulled funds from multiple accounts to finance their projects in their proposals.
SMC’s club count is at a record high, and compared to the 2023-24 year, about $20,000 more was spent of the ICC Allotment account. Out of about 90 clubs at SMC as of the last ICC meeting, only half of the clubs submitted AS proposals and successfully appropriated funds.
Graph by Phoebe Huss
Those clubs include: Adelante Club, Corsair AI Club, Alpha Gamma Sigma Club, Art Club, Bike Club, Biotech Association Club, Black Collegians Program Club, Business Club, Business in Sports Club, Chabad Jewish Student Club, Chemistry Club, Chess Club, Chinese Culture Club, Computer Science Club, Cosmo Club, Creator Rewards Club, Crochet Critters Club, Design Club, Earth Science Club, Eco Action Club, Economics Club, Empowered Minds Club, Fashion’s Future Club Creatives, French Club, Filipino Association Club, Gender Sexuality Alliance Club, Girls Who Code Club, Guitar Club, How Money Works Club, Indigenous Scholars Club, Inspired to Create Club, Math Integration Club, International Student Forum Club, Japanese Language and Culture Appreciation Club, Korean Culture Club, Model United Nations Club, NOMAS Club, Oaxacans at SMC Club, Psychology Club, Respiratory Care Club, Robotics Club, Rotaract Club, Student Nurses’ Association, Tennis Club, and Thrifted Treasures Club.
The Robotics Club racked up the highest AS expenditures out of any club, on only one proposal: participation in the annual VEX Robotics Competition and purchasing ARDUINO robots to train new club members. The proposal cost $14,356.05.
Other big spenders were the Creator Rewards Club, spending $7,605.13 primarily on food and April’s COLLIDE event; and Empowered Minds Club, spending $4,967.05 also on food as well as guest speakers.
One new rule implemented by the Finance Committee and now amended in the Fiscal Policy is that clubs can only spend up to two thirds of their ICC allotted money on food and drinks.
Other groups whose proposals were approved include the Art Department, Communications and Media Studies Department, Enrollment Development Department, Global Citizenship Committee, Jewish Affinity Group of Employees, Men of Color Action Network, Office of Student Life, SMC Foundation Department, Student Equity Center, Sustainability Department, Transfer Counseling Department, VIP Day Planning Committee, and AS themselves.
The college’s Associate Dean of Student Life, Thomas Bui, presented the Fiscal Policy changes at the final Director meeting on May 19.
Bui also congratulated this year’s Board of Directors for successfully carrying out a wide sum of proposals. All Director term limits end on June 30, but the May 19 meeting was the final day for the Board to ratify proposals.
“You don’t always get to see the impact you make, but those … proposals are going to go on to impacting more students than you will ever know,” Bui said. “I hope that you’re proud of that (and) that you understand that you helped do that for SMC.”