In an email to the StudentsList on Apr. 1, 2019, Student Allocations Committee (SAC) Secretary and thesis student Bailey Humyn announced a soft cap of $500 per meeting. After starting out the academic year with a $40,000 budget, there was only $4,336 left after their meeting on Sunday, Apr. 7. The remaining funds are primarily intended for smaller club events and does not include money for Palm Court Parties (PCPs).
“Since we have such a limited amount of funds left, we’re trying to limit the amount we’re spending,” SAC Chair and third-year Eshel Rosen said.
The on-campus tennis club is an organization that has been affected by the budget shrink. Like other on-campus sport organizations, the tennis club has relied on SAC funding to pay for a private coach. Since he knew money is tight this year, tennis club President and second-year Rory Renzy asked for half of what had been alloted in years past.
“It’s disappointing but we’ve definitely been adapting to it,” Renzy remarked. “It’s not the fault of the SAC itself to have to deal with this situation.”
Alas, the SAC funds were not sufficient to last all year: their budget for their coach and new supplies recently ran out, but they were able to secure some funds from the New College Foundation to cover coaching for the rest of the year.
“It’s disappointing that we’re seeing drops in the amount of funding clubs can get,” Renzy said. “It’s a weird conflicting situation, because you have student government and administration focusing on growing sports and activities and trying to retain students. But then you have, with smaller numbers coming in enrolling classes, the inability to fund those sports adequately in a way to retain those students.”