This semester, Grand Rapids Community College Student Government and Campus Activities Board will begin hosting Student Leaders’ Town Hall together, aiming to hear student voices and provide campus updates. In the first-of-its-kind meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 11, the two groups passed a budget for the 2024-2025 school year.
The proposed budget funding comes from the $10 activity fee and reads as follows:
- $271,00 of estimated revenue for the student activities fee (up $73,000 from last year)
- $70,620 for the Campus Activities Board allocation (up $4,620 from last year)
- $17,000 for Student Government (up $2,00 from last year)
- $4,000 for the music group allocation (no change from last year)
- $4,000 for the Display Magazine allocation (no change from last year)
- $0 for the food pantry (down $5,000 from last year)
- $10,000 for adviser travel expenses (no change from last year)
- $8,000 for the student leadership awards (no change from last year)
- $7,5000 for homecoming (down $2,500 from last year)
- $30,000 for Go See GR (no change from last year)
- $72,500 for student leader compensation (no change from last year)
- $14,000 for the Raider Connect annual fee (no change from last year)
- $27,850 in money that was unspent in prior years from Student Activities Revenue
A remainder of $33,380 was left for student organization funds, as well as a $27,850 reserve. Reserve funds act as a safety net to ensure that organizations can continue without disruptions in the event that unexpected costs arise.
The most notable budget change is the discontinued allocation to GRCC’s food pantry. While Student Government is not allocating funds to the pantry that is accessible to students, Valerie Butterfield, Director of Student Life and Conduct, explained that this academic year the food pantry budget will have more funding than the previous year, but it will be coming from other sources.
“The GRCC Foundation designates some allocations from the Robert Richmond Trust annually to support the GRCC Food Pantry,” stated Butterfield. “This year due to other institutional funding available for a variety of programs the GRCC Food Pantry was able to benefit from a larger allocation from the trust for this academic year. … This year we anticipate having $38,750 available for resources for the food and snack pantry and therefore did not need to request supplemental funding.”
During the discussion, first year Display Magazine adviser and English professor Patrick Prominski spoke up and said that Display typically spends twice the amount presented in the current budget on printing costs that are split between two issues at 500 copies each.
“The Display budget of $4,000 is inadequate,” said Prominski. “One issue costs $4,000. The last two issues that were published over the last year cost almost $8,000.”
Prominski also explained that Display Magazine has suffered since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overall budget was cut in 2023 in addition to the $4,000 in outstanding bills that the magazine has.
The budget for this year was approved as is, and Prominski will present more information on Display Magazine and the necessary funding during the October town hall.
An allocations request of $1,863.64 for the Foreign Affairs Club to attend the Model United Nations conference in Chicago was approved as well.
During the meeting, the Student Organization Incentive was introduced, allowing GRCC clubs to receive a $25 incentive when they attend town hall meetings either in person or via zoom up to four times per semester.
In other news, Student Government and CAB also provided participants more information on the goals of their respective organizations.
The primary objective of Student Government, as explained by President Alex Miranda, is to support the needs of the GRCC student body.
“Our purpose essentially is (that) we are here to hear you out and advocate for students on campus,” Miranda explained.
Brayden Smith, CAB President, explained that CAB is responsible for planning and hosting events on campus.
“Our purpose for CAB is to inform students of volunteer opportunities,” Smith said. “Hopefully we can gather some new volunteers for events, as it seems like last year and this year our events are getting bigger, so we’re looking for more students that can hopefully help out with that.”
Smith also shared a calendar of events hosted by CAB this semester, including this month’s upcoming interactive “Students Fight Back” self-defense program on Sept. 18 from 3 – 5 p.m. and the Fall Festival from 12 – 4 p.m. on Sept. 28.
The next Student Leaders’ Town Hall will be held on Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. in the Applied Technology Center.
