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My Activity Fee, Not Yours

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Closing Time

I’m a firm believer that I can spend my money better than you or some elected politician can.

I prefer smaller government and lower taxes. I like processes to be transparent and clear, especially when it comes to dishing out my money.

Each semester, as an undergraduate, you pay $102 ($204 per year) into an account known as the Student Activity Fee (SAF).

The Activity Fee is a vital instrument in ensuring that undergraduate Cornellians are able to enjoy many staples of life here on the Hill: Slope Day ($15 per student per year), Orientation Week ($5.65), Senior Week and Convocation ($14.50), concerts ($12), and much more.

Another part of the SAF, about $76 per undergraduate, or about 37 percent of the total fee, is allocated to the Student Assembly Finance Commission (SAFC).

A committee of the Student Assembly, the SAFC hears requests from smaller groups on campus who do not directly receive funds from the Student Assembly. You, or one of your friends, may have submitted a budget to the SAFC, taken the infamous President and Treasurer’s Test, or maybe you had to sit through a budget hearing with some SAFC Commissioners.

I have tremendous respect for the individuals on the SAFC. They work hard, dedicate a lot of time and energy to Cornell, and they do a decent job when it comes to allocations.

But my qualms come from the SAFC as an institution, the way it funds, what if funds, and who is able to receive funds.

While I won’t mention any of the SAFC funded groups by name (there are about 350 of them), some have very few members and many groups receive a disproportionate amount of funding (obviously, a proportionate amount would be $76 per person).

The current SAFC’s funding guidelines permit for redundancy among groups, wasted funds, and inactivity.

A hypothetical: I can create a club for rocks. My friends and I can apply to the SAFC and hypothetically a certain dollar amount. But what about some other guys in my fraternity who, more specifically, like limestone rocks. They create the club for limestone rocks, apply to the SAFC, and also get funding.

Why not combine the groups into an umbrella organization for rock lovers?

To change this, I propose that the Student Assembly dissolve the SAFC and entrust undergraduates with the final say as to where their $76 goes.

Here’s what I propose we do:

If we were to use the current funding cycle as an example, you would still pay $204 as your activity fee. Of the $204, $128 would go to fund the typical by-line funded groups: Slope Day, Cornell Cinema, Class Councils (Senior Week, Convocation, etc). This would ensure that these essential groups would receive ample funding to bring a big act to Slope Day or a world-renowned speaker to Senior Convocation.

The remaining $76 is essentially given back to you.

A week or two into the semester, you’d receive an e-mail with a link. You’d log onto a website and you would be able to allocate the $76 into groups that you belong to. For example, if you are a member of Club “X,” then you can allocate all of your funds to Club “X.”

For those of you involved in more than one activity, you can split the money among Clubs “X” and “Y.”

Understanding that many groups would be hurt by the drastic decrease in funding, organizations at Cornell would then have a greater incentive to not only recruit more members, but also fundraise, or co-sponsor with other organizations.

Undergraduate students who earmark their funds would then have the responsibility to ensure that their money is spent reasonably, fairly, and for the purpose of the organization only.

This new system would give an increased incentive for Cornellians to become involved in campus activities.

With the implementation of my new system, you would see the elimination of under enrolled and underperforming organizations that received more than their fair share from the Student Activity Fee. The new system is exactly a “you get what you pay for” model.

Funds not individually allocated by a certain date would be added to an account that would begin building the “Activity Fee Endowment.” Through investments, portfolio diversification, and donations, the Activity Fee Endowment, within several years, would attempt to fund the entire, or a portion of, the Student Activity Fee.

Now before my online readers start accusing me of being drunk again, realize that there are obviously kinks in this system. What does a student do if they’re not happy with the way their money was spent? How do you incorporate freshmen into this model? What do you do if an individual’s allocation to an organization is less than another’s in the group? Is it fair that I pay $38 to be in Club X while you pay $76 to be in the same club and reap the same benefits?

And a big one: What about club sports, who would be receiving far less?

These are all legitimate questions and concerns. But I think its time we begin a campus discussion to ensure that our money is not only allocated equitably, but also that undergraduates are given an incentive to get more from Cornell than just classes and prelims.

C.J. Slicklen is a senior in the School of Hotel Administration. He can be reached at slicklen@cornell.edu. Closing Time appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

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