This Sunday, November 1st, president Charlie Bruce ’16 called the meeting to order at 4:13 PM, in the campus center. The meeting was held earlier than the usual 7PM due to a schedule conflict with Lantern Night. Congratulations to the first years, McBrides, and new transfers!
Several Announcements were made following roll call.
First, the Erdman party has been moved to December 4th. There will be boxes in every common room for a tampon and pad drive for the homeless – please do not move these boxes!
Second, Sam Heyrick would like to thank the over 500 people who made it to the social committee (SoCo) Halloween party!
Lastly, the November appointments round are upon us again! Positions up for reappointment: Traditions Committee (Class of ’17 and ’16), Financial Aid Advisory Board (McBride Representative), Dining Services Advisory Board, Alcohol Concerns Review Board, Customs Committee Heads, Customs Committee. Please visit appointments@brynmawr.edu for more information about the appointments process and for position descriptions. Email gbsmith@bmc if you have any questions.
Following announcements, the remainder of the SGA meeting was devoted to ruminations on the budget. Vice President Gabrielle Smith and Treasurer Linh Tran attended a budget committee meeting with Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kari Fazio, who asked the representative council to brainstorm ideas pertaining to where the college could reduce costs and increase revenue. In short – what do students like and want to keep, and what services are not really being used.
In preface to the brainstorming session, the council looked at an expenditure breakdown and a revenue breakdown of the college’s budget. Several key points to note from that are that student tuition only covers 47% of the total revenue needed to fund the college each year. Gifts and endowment income make up most of the rest – 37%. The college’s biggest expenditures are on instruction (37%), institutional support (17%), academic support (14%) and student services (11%). In recent years, the college has made a small amount of surplus, but not enough to be significant.
Given that student tuition only makes up 47% of yearly revenue in the college’s operating budget, there comes a day, called “Give a Hoot Day” when the college ceases to operate using student funds, and instead entirely relies things like Alumnae support and endowment income.
So! Bearing all that in mind, the representative council floated around the following ideas, trying to conceptualize what CFO Kari Fazio described as “the college of the future”:
We could have less, more sustainable landscaping, a re-evaluation of dinning services for more efficient food production and cooking, better insulation in the buildings, an updated heating system, and an increased reliance on college produced solar power.
In this discussion, we also learned that The Lusty Cup and Uncommon Grounds actually loose money, but are kept open because students like them.
On a similar note, it was proposed that in addition to 24 Canaday, the college introduce 24 hour Collier and Carpenter, for majors whose field is not housed in Canaday.
On the fundraising front, it was clarified that alumnae fundraising is actually quite successful –“Direct expenses for fundraising were $4,207,000 in 2015 and $4,195,000 in 2014.” Which yielded about $8,000,000 in donations. Remember, however, that this is only one source of income for the college.
If you have any ideas regarding how to increase revenue, and decrease spending, please email sga@brynmawr.edu
Following this discussion, the SGA meeting was adjourned at 4:54 PM.