SOCC budget increased by $11,000

$11,000 of funding was added to the SOCC budget this semester in an effort to increase student involvement and prevent a shortfall of funds.

The Associated Students of Skyline College receives funding from the $8 student body fee. To help the ASSC run some of their operations, the Skyline Organization Club Council has been growing over the years.

With the upcoming semester and the increasing number of clubs that are becoming active on campus, a budget increase is needed, according to Amory Cariadus, the student life and leadership manager, who cited the goal of the increased funding as, “to increase student activity and to get more students to understand the benefits of being involved in these co-curricular activities.” SOCC plans to do this by making adjustments in other areas so that they can make the $11,000 increase possible.

Recently, the ASSC’s budget had taken a hit in order to distribute more money to the clubs on campus.

“Now the ASSC will be more creative with the budget they have now for their events and programs,” Cariadus said. “(The SOCC budget) can now increase student activity with school events, which is the primary goal. The ASSC budget is the student body fee of $135,000 give or take…it depends on how many students enroll, how many students waive the fee, how many students are in online classes etc. “

The Administration of Justice Club at Skyline College is one of the many clubs that had troubles due to lack of funding in the past. The club had to resort to fund raisers and self donations within its own members just for the club to stay afloat.

“We’ve been short on money,” Steve Aurilio, advisor of the administration of justice club said. “I’ve had to donate money myself…As far as funding for the club, there are a lot of things that we tried to do through fund raising in a variety of ways- holding car washes, different types of gatherings and things like that, which we will do again this year going into next.”

Most clubs on campus so far this semester have been hosting events to fund raise and be self-reliant, and to promote their club. With the Administration of Justice club and many others that already hosted their first meeting, the anticipation of a share of the $11,000 increase seems very promising.

“I would imagine…that any additional funding is going to help us, and we welcome that, but also we want to be self generating, be able to earn our way and pay our way,” Aurilo said.

 

Update: this article has been updated with the new most recent version. 8:44 p.m. 9/17/2014.