SU’s year of financial crisis leads to slashed budgets for student services
STUDENTS’ UNION bodies are to face massive budget cuts after the finance committee was forced to make up a gaping deficit just shy of £30,000 in last year’s budget proposal.
The Athletics Union has taken the biggest financial hit, with £7,000 being knocked off their annual allowance despite increasing the price of membership for students by 25 per cent.
However, it appears that societies are to suffer the most, with a decrease of £2,000 leaving 52 organisations competing for only £26,000. This signifies a cut of almost 8 per cent, which will harm many societies already in a precarious financial position.
Other cuts to the new budget include £1,500 from Welfare, £2,000 from the media budget, £1,000 from Student Action , £200 from RAG and £210 from the JCR budget.
On top of this, around £4,000 was found to have been lost due to a “data inputting error” which had taken place whilst the budget was being cut.
Finance Committee, led by SU treasurers Daniel Pietkiewicz and Calvin Kwan, was forced to find £30,000 after the SU commercial net income plummeted to a loss of over £23,000 in the last academic year, nearly £45,000 less than the year before.
Pietkiewicz said that the cuts were “absolutely necessary” since the previous SU’s budget was passed on the hope of a £30,000 handout from the University after they had already given the Students’ Union another £14,000. At the present time the University has not signalled that it will be giving any more money.
Micky Armstrong, the SU President, admitted that the budget “that got passed through the UGM last year [was based] on the proviso that we would find this extra £30,000 which we didn’t. We were hoping the University would cover some of it.” He said that the cuts simply had to be made as “we’re still not happy planning to lose money. It’s just stupid really.”
Despite stressing their status as a welfare union prioritising student interests, the SU have decided to press on with the cuts to current expenditure irrespective of having tens of thousands of pounds in reserve funds.
Armstrong stressed that this was the right thing to do, and said: “if we keep dipping into our reserves with the money that we lost last year then the Union wouldn’t last very long. It’s unprofessional to just rely on your reserves.”
Fears have also been raised that further cuts will have to be made if the NUS enforces its national clamp-down policy on enforcing full and accurate affiliation fees.
YUSU has been told by the NUS that, due to increasing student numbers, York should be paying £51,250, rather than its current £36,000. If this goes ahead, Armstrong was unable to confirm whether the University would help to cover the entire deficit. Graham Gilbert, University Director of Finance, was unavailable for comment.
The new budget now stands ready to be passed through a UGM, which breaks even. However, it will require a quorate body of students to ratify the revised and cut proposals for spending this year.
