FINANCE CHAIR Thomas Keough

On VUSAC’s Financial Position

VUSAC’s current winter budget is approximately double the size of the fall budget Roughly $35,000 of the fall budget was not spent. These funds have since been re-budgeted for the winter. The fall surplus has allowed VUSAC to be less frugal this term

On the Winter Budgeting Process

Winter budgeting proceeded smoothly. Student organizations were given a one-month window, from midDecember to mid-January, to submit their budget requests. Most were submitted on time, with minor extensions granted for several budgets. The Budget Steering Committee was able to meet twice prior to winter Budget Ratification on January 27th . These meetings were instrumental in identifying complications with budgets and addressing them prior to the Ratification meeting. I believe that lengthening the budgeting process allowed it to proceed relatively effortlessly, since there was much more time for student groups and for myself to meet all necessary deadlines.

On Levy Audits

Unfortunately, the lengthening of the winter budgeting process meant that levy audits had to be delayed. They are scheduled to begin on February 27th , and will be conducted by Michael Elsaesser (VPSO), Hannah Muigai from the Office of the Bursar, and myself. Every levy will be audited with the exception of VISA and WUSC, as they did not submit budgets to VUSAC this year.

On Budget Utilization

As briefly noted earlier, $35,000 of budgeted fall expenses were not spent. This accounts for approximately 55% of all budgeted expenses. This is not a unique situation. It is a common trend with VUSAC’s spending year-over-year. Large deficits in utilization were prevalent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic especially. This winter, I plan to advocate for greater utilization by giving frequent updates on our utilization status. I hope that this reminds student groups of how much money they have to spend and inspires them to follow through on the programming that they planned. Moreover, I will encourage student groups to submit reallocation requests if they have found a better way to use the funds they have been given. I plan to give a new update on VUSAC’s budget utilization at the meeting on March 3rd , 2023. For more information on VUSAC’s utilization, I’d recommend reading Maeve Ellis’s recent article in The Strand titled “Victoria College Clubs Spent Less Than Half Their Fall-Term Budgets. What Happened?”. It can be found on page 2 of The Strand’s 2023 Wellness Issue or accessed online here

If you would like to further discuss the topics of this report, please send me an email at finance@vusac.ca

Best, Thomas Keough