The Student Finance Committee has been working with the College to make use of a $3.6 million surplus that emerged when most student activities were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. SFC currently seeks to gift the surplus to Oberlin’s endowment, where the money will be invested under the condition that it benefits the Student Activity Fund.
SFC is a student-led body that manages and allocates the Student Activity Fund, a pool of money coming from the Student Activity Fee paid by all students and used to fund student organizations and projects. In recent years, SFC has typically dispersed $1.6 million through the Student Activity Fund. However, during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of campus, spending was considerably reduced while students continued to pay the Student Activity Fee.
“The COVID balance net impact post the 2020-2021 year was about $2.1 [million],” College third-year and SFC Head Treasurer Vivienne Jones wrote in an email to the Review. “That number has since grown to about $3.6 [million], mostly due to SFC not being made aware of the magnitude of the surplus and thus operating under the assumption that the amount collected every semester was the extent to which we had funds to distribute.”
Former SFC Chair and College fourth-year Lucas Daley said that SFC became aware of the money during the 2023-24 school year and began conversations with the College on how the money could be used to benefit the Student Activity Fund long-term.
“After three years of discussions with the Finance and Dean of Students Offices, we negotiated a strategy that meets legal, regulatory, and institutional requirements, providing 5 percent annual distributions restricted solely to student organization activities,” Daley wrote in an email to the Review. “All that remains is finalizing the gift agreement and securing the necessary Board approvals.”
If finalized, the agreement will mean the $3.6 million will be given to the endowment as a one-time gift, with 5 percent taken out each year to benefit student activities. Daley said the endowment gift would grant the Student Activity Fund an extra $150,000 in the first year alone, with returns expected to increase each year as the endowment grows.
Daley said that SFC determined that an endowment gift was the most beneficial use of the extra money.
“We initially considered a wide range of options for managing this surplus,” he wrote. “While a spend-down could provide larger distributions upfront, it would not provide long-term benefit for future generations of Oberlin students. Likewise, independent investment of a fund this size would require constant oversight and could be squandered if managed improperly. Pooling the investment with other endowment funds preserves stable returns while maximizing annual distributions.”
Jones stressed how the surplus will benefit Oberlin students.
“This rollover provides SFC with two amazing opportunities,” she wrote. “It allows us to increase our short-term funding capacity through budgets in upcoming semesters, and we can reduce the need for more frequent Student Activity Fee increases, meaning less financial burden to students and their families.”
Both Daley and Jones emphasized that the endowment gift is still a work in progress. The gift agreement will need approval by offices within the College and the Board of Trustees before it is finalized.
“Currently, we are working through the legal weeds of what this transaction entails,” Jones wrote. “We’ve spent a long time in conversation with various administrators across different offices on campus. … At this point, after productive meetings over the past three years, we’ve been able to develop a concrete endowment gift proposal that we hope is equitable, sustainable, and beneficial for the student body.”
Senior Associate Dean of Students Thom Julian, who helped SFC coordinate their conversation with College offices, said the administration is currently assessing the plan.
“The proposal is currently being reviewed by the General Counsel’s Office and the Office of Finance & Administration to ensure we meet the legal requirements as well as the desired outcomes for the fund,” Julian wrote in an email to the Review.
