February 22, 2024 | NEWS | By Havalin Haskell
Disclosure: Cutler Publications, The Catalyst’s primary funder, receives money from CCSGA each year.
“Not much.” “Nothing.”
Those might be the answers you’ll encounter if you spend part of a morning asking around 50 random Colorado College students of all grade levels what they know about CCSGA.
Some of them might even ask you to spell out the acronym.
It stands for Colorado College Student Government Association. Basically, it’s the body of students elected by their peers who decide much of what goes on with student life on campus. The group dictates which organizations receive money for what events. They also serve as a communication pathway, connecting CC with the wider Colorado Springs community and working closely with the administration to share student concerns.
In other words, a big deal. Not appropriately described by “not much” or “nothing,” that’s for sure.
“We all know they exist, but you never know exactly what they are doing,” said Zoey Roueche ’24, when asked to assess her student government.
But they are doing something.
At a CCSGA meeting, held in the Student Event Space in the basement of Worner, five separate committees made up of a handful of students each presented updates on their current initiatives. Projects ranged from increasing accessibility to free menstrual products around campus to coming up with programming for Women’s History Month. Discussions were had regarding the creation of a special senior magazine for this year’s graduating class as well.
They also listened to and gave feedback on a proposal for something called The Collaborative Native Garden Project, an initiative by students Kai Fogelquist and Noah Furuseth, leaders of the CC Farm. Members of CCSGA appeared receptive to the presentation by offering support of the project, such as an endorsement and potential financial support.
Some of the most common questions students say they have about their elected student government revolve around funding and the budget; namely, where does all the money come from and where does it go?
On the CCSGA’s website, while the process to petition for funds is outlined and updated, more detailed budgetary information, with specific numbers of the CCSGA budget and its distribution is not currently available.
According to the bylaws of the CCSGA Constitution, the student government association “must submit in writing to the entire school the financial status of CCSGA including the current account balances and allocations to date.” Additionally, it says, “the Finance Committee shall publish all financial updates in each edition of the Catalyst.”
That hasn’t happened since 2020. Co-Editors-in-Chief of The Catalyst indicated those rules were news to them when told about them during the reporting of this story.
The only current financial public update is within a Blockly newsletter called “Gossip w/the Prez,” which states the finance committee has “allocated spring club budgets and is anticipated to see an increase in special events funding.”
To get more specific information, the newsletter says, “rumor has it Madame VP Addi and her committee love to go on 5 a.m. jogs if you see any of them ask them and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to have you!”
So what does the current CCSGA budget look like?
“The budget mainly comes from the student activity fee,” said Addi Schwieterman, Vice President of the Finance Committee. The student activity fee is a part of tuition, and for the academic year 2023-24, it amounted to $474 per student. The 2024-2025 academic year will see these fees raised to $510, in light of the recent tuition increase.
This year, the CCSGA total budget was “a little over a million dollars,” which comes from three pools, the student activity fund, an endowment, and a reserve, she said. Records show the official figure is $1,023,840 for 2023-2024.
From that, $128,400 goes towards club operating budgets, and $80,300 towards Special Events Funding, for which any students can apply as long as the event is “open to everyone on campus and/or benefits everyone on campus,” as outlined on the Special Events Funding section of the CCSGA website.
Student government has “always been more than able to supply funding,” said Roueche, who is president of the Blue Key Honor Society and Secretary General of Model UN. This appears to be the consensus across other student organizations, from Dance Workshop, SoCC, to E-Sports, according to the organization’s current club leaders.
Sadie Almgren, co-general manager of SoCC, the Sounds of Colorado College, an independent student radio station, said: “I feel comfortable in our relationship with CCSGA and confident that they will do their best to support us when we ask.”
Additionally, in the 60s, CCSGA created an endowment fund that now pays out around “$80,000 a year,” Schwieterman said. CCSGA’s Finance Committee has just recently accessed this endowment.
This unlocking of endowment funds, along with the pandemic, which drastically reduced demand for funding because of minimal campus events or activities, has left the reserve fund of the CCSGA budget to have “grown to such an insane amount,” according to both Schwieterman and Student Body President Vicente Bias Taijeron.
The reserve fund currently amounts to “about $700,000.” However, the bylaws of the CCSGA constitution states the reserved fund should be around $5,000 at the end of funding allocations.
While Schwieterman said the Finance Committee has already increased operating budgets of clubs and increased the annual funding of established events such as Battle of the Bands and the Powwow, they are currently meeting with the Dean of Students, Lacy Karpilo, to figure out what to do with the rest of the reserve funding.
“It is insane that we have that amount of money, but it’s also exciting,” Schweiterman said. One idea has been to use a chunk of the reserve funding to continue renovating the Student Event Space in the basement of Worner, as a comfortable, “functional hang-out space” with couches and computers.
The Finance Committee is also looking into better ways to support and expand SafeRide, perhaps getting more vehicles and setting up a continual budget to pay more student drivers.
While plenty of students might be unaware of CCSGA and its role on campus, it’s clear that doesn’t apply to everyone.
In a recent opinion piece in The Catalyst, student Aditya Yadav wrote, “CC’s commitment to democracy should be upheld by allowing the CC community and student body to have a say in where the money goes.”
Asked to respond, Schweiterman said the student government is also hoping to poll student opinions on where to use the extra money. Additionally, she explained how her Finance Committee is currently working to create informational infographics, specifically containing more detailed information about the student activity fee on the website.
“We all have a mutual understanding that we need to deplete it [because] it’s not equitable for us to have this much money,” said President Taijeron. “But we’re just trying to find where best to utilize it.”
Overall, CCSGA is striving to increase visibility and student engagement, as it is currently “a total mystery until you are in it,” said Schweiterman, adding, “that is how I felt until I joined.”
The CCSGA meets weekly, and its website states, “anyone is encouraged to join these meetings.” However, Student Body President Vicente Blas Taijeron and Royce Hinojosa, a sophomore representative on the Outreach Committee, estimated that only about one to two students who aren’t affiliated with CCSGA attend weekly meetings. Hinojosa admits that such low outside engagement is “not great.”
While the day and time are accurate, CCSGA has not updated the meeting location on the website. Additionally, the organization has yet to update the minutes detailing the discussion of each meeting since 2020-2021.
Acknowledging that, Taijeron said CCSGA is working on its administrative skills.
Along with weekly meetings and occasional office hours, CCSGA has started tabling in the lobby of Worner the second week of every Block, “to hear whatever idea, concern, suggestion,” students want to bring forth and get to know their representatives, as stated on the CCSGA Instagram.
On the third Wednesday of Block 5, CCSGA hosted a Town Hall meeting in South Hall Commons for first and second-year students, which drew approximately 20 students.
As elections for Student Body President, VP of Outreach, Finance, and Inclusion approach in Block 6, and elections for the full council in Block 7, CCSGA is hoping to increase awareness in order to “connect with the widespread within the student community.”
“My goal for CCSGA,” said Hinojosa, who hopes to continue representing students over the next few years, “is a longer-term strategic plan so that even going through different administrations, we are working toward similar goals.”