The Undergraduate Finance Board published its first budget report Nov. 21, which provided an overview of how it expects to allocate approximately $2.2 million dollars in the 2018-19 academic year.
UFB is an elected body of 12 undergraduates in charge of distributing the revenue raised through the student activities fee, which is $286 this year, along with “money that was allocated but not spent in the previous year and ticket revenues from Gala and the Brown Concert Agency,” according to the report.
About $1,604,526, or 73 percent, of UFB’s budget is spent by student groups. UFB allots the majority of that money during its annual budgeting process, which takes place at the close of the spring semester.
The Board projects that it will dedicate 15 percent of its budget to “Event Support” this year, including funding facilities services for student groups and paying the Department of Public Safety and the Fire Marshall to be present at “large student events,” as required by the University.
The final 12 percent of UFB’s budget goes to a number of destinations, according to the report. For instance, the Brown Center for Students of Color, the LGBTQ Center and the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center receive funding to support certain events, and $75,000 is given to Club Athletics.
Any leftover funds “act as a buffer to ensure that UFB doesn’t over-spend in case costs are higher than anticipated,” according to the report.
UFB Chair Lisa Schold ’19 and Vice Chair Julian De Georgia ’20 both used their respective campaigns during last spring’s elections to emphasize the importance of transparency, The Herald previously reported. At the start of this semester, the two launched a “transparency campaign” that featured a new stand-alone website for UFB, where the budget report is available.
“Because the money that we have comes directly from the students, we have an obligation to be transparent about where that money goes,” De Georgia said.
Schold and De Georgia initially projected that UFB’s first budget report would be completed by the end of September, but publication was pushed back while they worked with the Student Activities Office to better understand the online accounting system the University uses.
The Board plans to release more budget reports in the future, where they will “give more detail about where the money goes,” De Georgia said.
According to De Georgia, UFB hopes the student body will provide feedback on how the Board allocates its funds because as an elected body, “that conversation with the students is really important to us.”
