The Undergraduate Students Association Council unanimously approved its budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year during its Tuesday meeting.
The budget estimates $10,596,556 in budgetable income and designates $10,536,556 for budgetable expenses for the fiscal year, which is set to commence Aug. 1.
The quarterly fee each undergraduate student will pay to the association for the 2024-2025 fiscal year will be $100.58. This includes a $10 membership fee, an $8.85 Campus Retention Committee fee, $3.60 to The Green Initiative Fund and a $4 entertainment fee – which does not include a $1.36 Bruin Bash fee. The budget estimates student fees will generate more than $10.5 million in revenue for the fiscal year.
Association fees may only be raised or lowered via a referendum. Fees levied as a result of a referendum must be spent according to the language of that referendum.
Only 9% of the fees approved by the council are discretionary and not subject to referendum restrictions, said Jessica Alexander, the division manager of ASUCLA Student Government Services, during the meeting.
“This is always going to be a challenge when we’re in the budgeting process,” Alexander said during the meeting.
More than $295,000 in expenditures was budgeted to pay for stipends for USAC officers and some other members of USA governing bodies. USAC officers received a pay raise of $0.50 per hour – in line with the change in minimum wage for workers in Los Angeles – and will now receive $17.28 per hour. With a maximum of seven claimable hours during the summer and 20 during the academic year, each council member may earn up to $14,826.24 for the fiscal year.
While council members voted to increase their own pay, they voted to cut the pay for members of the USA Judicial Board, which has not held a hearing in over two years.
“It just doesn’t make sense to have students pay for a thing that isn’t utilized,” USAC President Adam Tfayli said during the meeting.
Previously, the chief justice of the board received $5,778.43 annually, while associate justices received more than $4,000. Going forward, the chief justice will receive $1,500 annually, while associate justices will receive $1,200 – decreases of more than 70% for both offices.
The council also voted to cut the stipend of the USA budget review director from more than $11,000 annually to $5,120 and to cut pay for non-chair members of the USA Elections Board in half.
The budget must now be approved by the ASUCLA Board of Directors, which will review the budget for “fiscal soundness.” The board will next meet July 19.
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