On April 12, John Carroll Student Government passed the budget for the 2023 fiscal year’s student activity fund. This money comes from the student activity fee that students are charged per semester to help fund events and organizations on campus. Overall, the budget dropped from $1,358,470 to $1,300,000, a result of a drop in enrollment by over 100 students. 

Several organizations lost significant amounts of funding including SUPB which received a reduction of $20,000 (5%). The Student Government lost $12,200 (24.8%), Residence Life Programming lost $8,700 (19.25%) and Greek Life lost $4,000 (30.77%). Another notable loss is the Leadership Development program which was reduced from $32,000 to $25,500 (20.31%).

However, some organizations received increased funding from the previous fiscal year or their budgets were unaltered. Those who received increased budgets include Club Sports (which received a higher budget to purchase computers/equipment for the new esports team), the Student Organization Budget Board and Student Wellness. However, the increase in funding to Student Wellness may be due to the merger of its program with the counseling center, the health center, JCUEMS and the Violence Prevention and Action Center.

These new trends potentially reveal declining enrollment at John Carroll as a result of the pandemic and other issues plaguing higher education more broadly.

“The Student Activity Fee budget recommendation was passed by the senate and sent to The Dean of Students Office for its final approval,” Student Government told The Carroll News. “This year’s allocation process was incredibly difficult, as the projected decrease in enrollment for the upcoming year has lowered the overall amount in the Student Activity Fee pooled budget. After many weeks of work and debate, we believe that the budget recommendation passed by the Senate is a fair compromise for all parties involved. We would like to acknowledge the hard work of our Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee over the past few months on this process. We would also like to express a big thank you to the students from many different campus organizations for voicing their opinions, ideas, and concerns through the formation of the budget!”