ASC $300,000 budget:
where it comes from and where it goes
Sebastian Edgerton
Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: News
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For up to ten enrolled credits, a fee of $7.45 per credit hour goes to the ASC budget. After ten credits, the amount goes up by percentage to the maximum amount of $98.50 for 18 credits, said Rick Ross, ASC Advisor. If a student is taking a full load, 15 credits, about $89.50 will be taken out for the ASC. Most students are affected by this fee, including those at the Forks and Port Townsend extension sites, the exceptions being students in Community classes, which are not subject to the fee. The fee only applies to credit classes.
The ASC budget is based on enrollment. If enrollment is high, the ASC has a large amount of money to divide out to programs. If enrollment falls, there is less money to go around.
To allocate the funds the ASC takes into account State rules and regulations. Proposals for spending go through stages of approval, each stage placing the proposal before a higher authority than the previous one.
The proposal starts with the Finance Committee, which is chaired by the ASC secretary/treasurer, current president, two vice presidents, the new president and the two new vice presidents.
From there the proposal goes to the ASC for approval. If passed, the president of the college, Dr. Thomas Keegan, approves or vetoes the proposal. Finally, as they do throughout the college, the Board of Trustees gets to make the final decision. This step is done once a year when the budget is being written up and evaluated. The rest of the year, Ross and the business office are the check and balance for ASC spending.
According to the ASC budget, there are four types of expenditures for requests. These are regularly funded accounts, new accounts, contingency accounts and long-term commitments. The regularly funded accounts are allotted a certain amount of money. For instance, the ASC put $59,000 of its budget toward the child care program on the main campus in 2007-2008.
Those receiving funds from the ASC have a year to spend it; any money not spent is rolled over into next year's ASC budget to be allotted again. To make sure that the money is spent as intended, the ASC can check an online daily budget that tracks the spending of all community colleges in the state. This service is open to the public upon request through Ross.
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