The Student Senate and the Student Finance Committee are improving their collaboration to better serve students and student organizations that utilize SFC funding. The two organizations met last Sunday, where SFC explained its procedures, and Senators were able to ask questions regarding SFC policies.
The meeting comes after a complaint that was brought before the Senate by the men and trans rugby club. The club team came to an October meeting of the Senate, expressing concerns that the team was not being supported or funded by SFC. SFC was able to resolve the issue, which arose from the team not filing a budget with SFC, and the committee was able to fund the team.
Once they had received the complaint, Student Senate also sent out a survey to student organizations to check if those organizations had any concerns or feedback regarding SFC. The survey, however, garnered only a few responses, and the results were inconclusive.
“Our goal behind [the survey] was [to find out] if any other student works have had similar experiences, or is there something that we should be made aware of,” College fourth-year and Student Body President Natalie Dufour said. “Does anyone have the feedback they want to share with us so we can better work with SFC and help support their [work]?”
To ensure that both organizations better understand each other’s policies, SFC met with the Student Senate on Sunday.
“We are two out of the three major student government organizations, Senate, SFC, and Student Honor Committee,” Dufour said. “And so after thinking about it and discussing it, one of our goals is for us to be more on the same page because we all deal with very different aspects of the student experience, but all of our goals are to make sure students have the best experience at Oberlin.”
“It was [a] really productive meeting,” College fourth-year and SFC Co-Chair Arrie Solomon said. “And we’re hoping to continue that relationship going forward.”
Dufour explained that she thought SFC does an excellent job given the constraints imposed on it.
“SFC definitely gets a lot more of the hate and the frustration because they’re dealing with money, and as soon as someone brings money into the equation, tensions get high,” she said. “And so I really applaud SFCs work in prioritizing students and doing their absolute best to make sure that all clubs and organizations get the funding that they need. … They have enough money for half their [requests], so everyone gets cut[s].”
SFC’s budget is derived entirely from the Student Activity Fund, which is funded by the mandatory activity fee which has remained constant since 2019. As the number of students enrolled in Oberlin dropped this year, SFC’s budget also dropped because fewer students are paying the fee. Since 2019, according to College third-year and Head Student Treasurer Lucas Daley, the consumer price index, which tracks inflation, rose by 18.33 percent, and the higher education price index rose by 14.51 percent.
To ensure that SFC’s budget is able to keep up with inflation, the SAF fee will increase in 2025–26 from $574 to $591 per year, which is an increase of 3 percent.
To achieve the raise, last year, SFC debated the proposal, which then went to the Student Senate, where a simple majority vote was needed to pass. Any raise higher than 3 percent would require approval from the Board of Trustees.
Daley and Dufour hope to regularly increase the fee, so that the SFC budget can keep up with inflation.
“[The increase] will essentially just increase SFC’s ability to fund [student organizations],” Daley said.
According to Daley, the increase will probably come every other year or every three years. He said that the increase at those increments would probably be smaller, but emphasized the regularity brought about by the change.
To increase their collaboration, the Senate Weekly newsletter will now include an SFC section containing highlights, submission dates, and other information. The two bodies will also have a sit-down meeting at the start of every semester to ensure that they are on the same page.
