Photo courtesy of OUSC

The Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC) has recently concluded its elections for the next year. This event has brought the organization’s budget to the forefront and is drawing questions that the next student body president, Jimena Garcia, will have to answer.

OUSC is funded by the Student Activity Fund (SAF) allocation, which is funded by OU students’ tuition money. According to the OUSC budget sheet, this amounted to $55,000 just for the winter 2024 semester, $58,000 for the fall 2023 semester and $13,00 for the summer 2023 semester.

With this amount of funding, funded by student tuition, the question ought to be asked: is it necessary?

On April 9, The Oakland Post sat down with Student Body President Murryum Farooqi to discuss the financial funding of OUSC. She expressed she feels that OUSC and all other student organizations should be getting more funding.

“We get $20 per student. Other universities are so much higher. They’re like $50, $80, $100, $200,” Farooqi said. 

Farooqi also explained the money that isn’t used rolls over into the next year. That is to say that every dollar not spent by OUSC is saved to be spent next year.

Although OUSC desires more money, and will definitely be lobbying the university administration to achieve this, there are many areas of surplus in the organization’s budget. 

According to the OUSC budget sheet, $1,000 was allocated for pronoun pins, and less than $50 was spent. $4,000 was allocated for office renovations, but not even $400 was spent. A total of $1,700 was allocated for the Director of Community Engagement for the summer semester — none of it was spent. This is just a handful of many other examples.

“We just allocate huge amounts, just in case,” Farooqi said.

In the interview, Farooqi explained the desire to get more funding per student allocated to OUSC is driven by the fact that student enrollment is decreasing. Farooqi is concerned that as student enrollment decreases, OUSC’s budget will also start to dwindle. This concern is legitimate, considering that OUSC funding is directly pegged to the amount of students. 

Farooqi stated she did not feel the funding for OUSC was a present problem but a future problem. Farooqi also made clear the negotiation with OU’s administration for more funding should start soon so that the changes can be made in a timely manner. 

“You start a conversation [with the administration] and then you just have that same conversation 15 times,” Farooqi said. 

Farooqi felt that financial burdens were the main cause of decreasing student enrollment. Therefore, Farooqi made the case that with more funding, OUSC could help curb these hardships.

“We can take some of that burden off and basically pay for professors to take the time to make textbooks for you and your classes,” Farooqi said, referring to the affordable course materials initiative.

These facts still do not discount the large amount of untended funding OUSC reveals in its budget sheet. Especially when $1,500 was allocated for handouts for housing and none was spent. 

These gaps in the allocation of funding seemingly reveal a problem for OUSC. The money set aside for individual projects, events and expenditures is always well above what is needed. This leaves a massive reserve of untapped resources for the organization. Yet, OUSC leadership feels money is running out and seeks to increase its funding.

While OUSC has a history of helping students with financial burdens, the shadow of an ill-kept pocketbook looms large. OUSC demands more funding — perhaps they already have it.