Student Finance Council Increases Funding for Co-Curricular

After a month of co-curricular Student Finance Council meetings, the student-led group has adopted a 2024-25 budget of $600,870 for co-curricular and athletics programs that allocates a $291,086 budget for MHCC co-curricular programs, and an athletics budget of $309,784.

The co-curricular programs involved and funded were ASMHCC (student body government), Forensics, Student Activities, The Advocate, Venture Magazine, Perceptions, KMHD2, and Rho Theta. 

Each Winter Term, the Finance Council agrees how to distribute the annual revenue from all Mt. Hood Student Activity Fees. After the Council vote on Feb. 27, the proposed budget went to ASMHCC, which approved the plan without modifications and sent it to the MHCC District Board of Education.

The Board will take up the plan in May, as figures the total college budget for next year.

In the co-curricular budget adopted, there was an increase of $71,141, or 28% from last year’s budget. One of the reasons explained for the large increase was a willingness to spend more than the student fees obtained, utilizing some of the $800,000 currently in reserves to cover operational costs. This reserve money comes from previous years where co-curricular money isn’t spent by the individual programs. 

A lot of this increase came from ASMHCC – Mt. Hood’s student government body – with an increase of $31,899 to be split between the ASMHCC administration, the MDRC (Multicultural and Diversity Resource Center), and the Student Programming support funds. These latter funds will go toward increasing the amount of money that students could request from for things such as student-run clubs. Part of the larger increase was also allocated to increasing the number of part-time workers. 

KMHD2, the student-run radio station on campus, requested an increase of $34,369. The majority of the increase was a one-time request to repair the speaker system around campus and additional funding for new visual information displays.

Additionally, the current speakers are not operational due to an outdated broadcast amp. The restoration would allow music to be played at select areas on campus. Issues that make for the high increase include the potential of having to work with asbestos in the Student Union, the need to buy broadcast-grade equipment, and the cost of labor and parts for installing new wiring. 

The visual display boards that KMHD2 proposed would allow for different organizations on campus to submit pictures or video through the MHCC Creative Collective, another service KMHD2 will run. These images will run on loop in multiple locations on campus, providing students with updated information.

As for the athletics budget, the amount approved stayed nearly flat – actually decreasing $3,940 from this year’s amount. The athletics budget was submitted to the Student Finance Council and adopted without any Finance Council representation or debate. 

Meantime, the Finance Council process may be changing. Longtime Administrative Regulations that codified the procedures the Council had to follow, among other student functions, have been removed by the college in the last year, leaving more vague processes outlined in the ASMHCC bylaws for future Council sessions.

The ASMHCC continues to seek recommendations on how to improve the Finance Council process for future sessions.