(Financial) state of the union

TESSA VANDERHART STAFF

UMSU vice-president (internal) Amanda Jonson said that the union had a $191,853 surplus last year.

“Technically we don’t have any deficits. Our financial position is pretty healthy.”

The UMSU budgeting process begins with the new council. Every January, budget consultations are held with student groups. The newly elected council and finance committee pass a provisionary budget, and the finance committee, chaired by the vice-president (internal), decide what to do with $267,850 in discretionary costs.

Sometimes budget lines change: this year the Daytimer budget line was increased from $24,000 to $40,000 because UMSU printed an additional 2,150 daytimers. The 2005-06 audit cost $22,000 instead of the planned $10,000. Student group funding was also increased by $8,000, because according to UMSU president Garry Sran that was an important priority of the more than 90 student groups. The budgeting process “depends on the number of students,” said Jonson.

UMSU collected $1,574,789 in student fees last year, $685,680 of which went to faculty and other associations and $889,109 of which went to UMSU, short of their projected $896,500.

The university collects fees on behalf of UMSU, and with the Aurora payment system implemented this year the way fees are collected has changed from a per-credit, annual fee to a semestered, flat fee — to ensure that students in faculties with different course load requirements all pay the same. Last year, students paid $37 per credit hour. This year, students were assessed a flat UMSU fee of $58.61 per term, plus faculty association fees and others, like $7.50 for awards, $3 for the Manitoban, $2.50 for UMFM, $2.75 for UMSU’s mortgage on the 100 level of the Helen Glass building, and CFS fees of $3.74 (national) and $2.49 (provincial).

Because of these changes, and changes in the way fees are refunded — the type and quantities of fees that are refunded when students drop classes also changed with Aurora — the university told UMSU to expect their total collected revenue from student fees to drop by no more than three per cent. Exactly how UMSU is affected by this change won’t be clear until the final coursechange deadline in January, but the finance committee will report to UMSU council in November with an idea of how it affected the union in the first semester.

UMSU also had to budget around the conclusion of the university’s contract with Pepsi, which expires on Dec. 31, 2006. The $800,000 that UMSU would have collected from a pouring-rights fee and commission from Pepsi sales at UMSU events was not included in the budget, but the university could negotiate a new contract.

For four years, the UMSU Health and Dental Plan ran a deficit; this year’s council approved a payment of $242,476 to the old provider, Campus Trust. Every student enrolled in the plan contributes $0.63 of their $197 premium to UMSU to recoup this internal deficit. As a result of the deficit, UMSU had to create a separate Health Plan Fund, which Jonson said was needed regardless, in the interest of “responsible accounting.”

UMSU is incorporated, but not under the province’s Corporation Act, so it can accrue surpluses or deficits from year to year.

Currently, UMSU’s retained earnings — the money not used in previous budgets, or “the worth of the corporation” according to Sran — is saved; Jonson said the union hopes to retain a savings totalling 50 per cent of the student fees collected each year in the event that there is a problem the transfer from the university, or in the event of a drop in enrolment.

She also noted that if UMSU’s surplus runs high enough — last year the union saved $191,853 — student fees could be reduced.

“The finance committee will review that after January, just to see