Student groups receive less money from USAC fund

Student groups received an average of $100 less than they did last year from an undergraduate student government fund, after the council approved allocations for the fund’s fall allotments Tuesday.

The Student Organizations Operational Fund, or SOOF, is a fund that is distributed to student groups to cover their event and programming costs. The Undergraduate Students Association Council totals the money left for SOOF after accounting for administrative costs, such as officers’ stipends and support services.

SOOF was allotted about $30,000 less this year than last year, because USAC increased administrative costs, according to the USAC 2015-2016 budget.

Stipends for USAC council members are currently tied to the California minimum wage, which will increase from $9 to $10 per hour beginning Jan. 1. Officer stipends will increase from $756 to $840 a month in January.

USAC President Heather Rosen said the council members will decide by the end of the year whether to tie stipends to the L.A. minimum wage, which will increase in increments until it reaches $15 an hour by 2020.

The council allocated a total of about $19,000 to 140 student groups this fall, compared to around $48,000 to 206 groups last fall. USAC has about $17,000 to allocate in winter quarter, compared to the $20,000 it distributed last year.

Tianxiang Yuan, financial director of the Chinese Student Association, said he was disappointed with the allotments because it impacts the way the club plans future events.

“We plan our events according to the expected amount of money we’re going to get based off the previous year’s allocation,” Yuan said. “It’s really a disincentive for us to continue our work in clubs if we’re not going to be able to get the funding.”

With the decrease in allocations, some student group leaders said they are looking at different options for covering their costs.

Tiana Austel, co-president of Swipe Out Hunger, said the group has been looking into collaborating with similar groups to compensate for the lack of funding. She added the group is also looking for outside funding sources.

Last year, the council proposed a referendum to increase student fees by $3 per quarter to cover funding for student groups, which has been consistently decreasing over the past few years. Only 46.1 percent of students who voted supported the referendum, which failed at last year’s spring election. The council will attempt to pass it again this year, Rosen said.