The Board of Student Organizations (BSO) has raised $15,173.57 this year, which is three times the amount that is usually raised. According to a letter written to the BSO by the Student Senate Chair, Jeremy Collette, during the academic year 2000-2001, the BSO raised $5,521.26 and in 2001-2002 raised $5,206.13.
The BSO provides financial support for student and off-campus organizations. In years past the student organizations that belong to the BSO have worked to raise money in order to plan trips, have guest speakers and promote their visibility on campus. When a student organization cannot raise enough money for their planned event, they must turn to the BSO and ask for funds, and sometimes there are none to spare.
“Funds are spread thin. Having a small budget helps us prioritize, [but] we have overcome the low budget,” said President of the BSO, Elizabeth Mann.
Low budgets plague student organizations and having to rely heavily on fundraising can be arduous and time consuming.
“I have spent time [preparing for] bake sales when I could have been writing papers,” said Mann. When asked if there were other things that students involved in fundraising could be doing, she answered, “They could spend more time on homework and [doing] things on campus.” The BSO has an involvement of 50 plus groups, and those numbers are expected to grow by the end of the semester. “We could see ten more [groups] by the end of the semester,” said Mann.
The Multicultural Students Association is just one of the many groups belonging to the BSO. Their purpose is to unite multicultural students on campus. “[The Multicultural Students Association] shows that USM has a multicultural body and makes us visible on campus,” said member Sidibe Thiam. Last semester the group went to New York City by fundraising and finding support from the BSO. “The BSO fundraising $15,000 is a good thing, because student organizations have needs,” said Thiam.
When the BSO does not have enough money to meet requests from organizations, it is then that the BSO must turn to the Student Senate to ask for money. If there is no money to give, then some organizations will go without. The BSO gets some of its money from the student activity fee, but because that fee covers many other organizations, such as the Student Senate and Free Press, the BSO depends on fund-raisers to sustain itself.
“I’m really proud that we raised all this money, [but] if the Student Activity Fee [were] raised we may not have to worry about fundraising as much,” said Mann. “I can understand the frustration when [students] see tuition go up all the time, but if [the student activity fee] went up, even by two dollars, it would make all the difference in the world.”
Erin Violette can be contacted at [email protected]