Funding the Fun: My Role in Carleton’s Budget Committee

At a small liberal arts school like Carleton, everyone has the ability to make a big impact!  The Carleton Student Association, or CSA, has a bunch of different committees and organizations where one can contribute to the school’s day-to-day operations. I was able to join the budget committee in my first term and I have loved it so much!

What Does Budget Committee Do?

We meet once a week on Wednesday nights to hear financial requests from clubs and organizations across campus. All of the money (over $700,000!) for student organizations is allocated by our group, it’s a lot of responsibility! Requests can range from local catering for a cultural organization meeting to hotel rooms for one of our club frisbee teams. Our role on the Committee is to make sure these requests fall in line with the Financial Guidelines and the money is allocated responsibly.

Rewriting the Financial Guidelines

This year, we have been working to rewrite the CSA Financial Guidelines as well as our normal club funding requests. After the pandemic, it was definitely time to make some changes so we have been working with the current treasurer to modernize our rules. As one would expect, this has led to some really interesting and spirited discussions. Where else can you spend twenty minutes arguing over a difference of three dollars? It’s a great deal of power to set the standard for the future of equitable and sustainable student funding at Carleton so we definitely have our hands full!

An Example Session

One Wednesday night, we had a request come in from the Cave (our on-campus entertainment venue) for a large sum of money to host a couple nights of Winter Concerts featuring prominent Mid-Western artists. We were really excited about the possibility of adding another fun winter term weekend and possibly even setting up a new campus tradition; however, we did not have the funding to support this endeavor. After about thirty minutes of collective work and tons of motions, we were able to reach a consensus. In the end, we ended up giving some money up front to pay for a headline artist and went into alternative sources of funding for later logistics. Now, we have Cavefest happening next weekend and I can’t wait! I know the music will sound even better knowing I played an important role in getting this event rolling!

Why I Love Budget Committee

It’s incredible to be able to make such an impact on our community! I have learned so much about how our college works, and the economics behind it (shockingly, even a college doesn’t have unlimited money). In the future, I plan to run for higher level positions such as class representative or maybe even CSA treasurer! I like to think of being a bigger fish in a small pond, and it has allowed me many opportunities that maybe aren’t possible for my friends at bigger schools. 

George P. (he/him) is a first-year student interested in studying Geology, Religion, and Physics. George is a native of Western Massachusetts and can’t wait to explore everything Minnesota has to offer! George’s passions include Karls frisbee, indie music, flannels and root vegetables. George also loves to be around soil, volunteering on the Student Organic Farm and hopefully working on a farm in Maine next Summer! Meet the Other Bloggers!