Tufts Community Union student leaders are expressing frustration with the stagnant Student Activities Fee, which is currently $396. The Student Activities Fee is added to all students’ tuition and managed by the TCU Treasury for all student activities on campus, from clubs to campuswide events put on by students.
This year, the Student Activities Fee raised a total of roughly $2.7 million, which was then distributed by TCU to student groups.
“We allocate that money to all 400 student organizations, and then keep a little bit left over through the year for supplementary funding purposes,” TCU President Dhruv Sampat said.
The amount collected from each student’s tuition has not changed since the 2018–19 school year, when it was increased from around $380 to $396, according to TCU Treasurer Brendan French.
“Trustees approve the overall tuition and fee schedule as part of the university’s annual budget process,” Patrick Collins wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Trustees focus on school and institution-wide issues that materially affect students and the university, such as the overall cost of attendance, alignment with peer institutions, and ensuring that resources support a strong academic and student experience. They do not set individual fee amounts independently or determine specific allocation decisions within the fee.”
“The student body is continuing to increase … and things are getting more expensive,” French said. “I really do think [clubs] need a bigger budget than what they had this year. A lot of times in office hours, clubs will come in and [say], ‘Oh, we really don’t have enough money.’”
TCU has tried working with the university administration to increase the Student Activities Fee to keep up with inflation and rising costs.
“The administration as a whole has been very, very receptive to revisiting that topic,” Sampat said.
French added that much of this support has involved other university departments helping to fund student activities on campus.
“[Facilities is] going to be helping us in the future look at prices and how much we’re spending on facilities … like room bookings, AV, light setup, microphones,” he said.
French described TCU’s relationship with the Board of Trustees as “one-way” and stated that TCU is currently in a waiting period after doing months of outreach and advocacy to the board to ask about raising the fee.
“If an increase to the Student Activities Fee is considered by the Schools, it is developed through the university’s annual budget planning process in partnership with the School Deans,” CoAs part of that process, school and university administrators consult with TCU student leadership to understand funding needs, program priorities, and the financial outlook for student activities.
The longstanding surplus from the COVID-19 pandemic that TCU maintained has now run out. In response to the shortfall, TCU is taking various steps to help clubs find other sources of funding.
“One of the biggest things we’re doing this year is negotiating with the university when it comes to things like club sports to try and get other parts of the university and other parts of the administration to be paying for certain things that we currently pay for,” Sampat said.
The Treasury also points students to the President’s Office and other academic departments for funding if TCU is unable to fund their request.
French and Sampat also mentioned a new fund from the University Chaplaincy which religious and spiritual student organizations can utilize for holiday and larger-scale programming starting next year.
Sampat highlighted that although it may be frustrating for clubs to run out of funding, it actually shows the administration that students utilize the funding provided by the Student Activities Fee.
“When the surplus was accumulating, it almost seemed as if the Senate wasn’t using the money it was being allocated,” Sampat said. “And very early on, when I became the treasurer, there was a conversation almost of, should the fee be reduced, and should we actually not be collecting as much from student tuition?”
Another unintended consequence of the surplus, according to Sampat, was a lack of support for student activities by other departments on campus.
“Because the TCU Senate had the ability and the funds to be able to support students and student activities, a lot of departments, a lot of other stakeholders on campus that used to support clubs don’t feel the need to do that at the same level,” Sampat explained.
Sampat emphasized the need for collaboration across numerous administrative departments and the Senate, adding that no one organization can be solely responsible for all student activities on campus.
“I don’t think in any successful university or school you can have all of student life be taken care of by just the Dean of Student Life and just a student government. It has to be a joint and collaborative initiative,” he said.
French said he understands that the Board of Trustees has a lot of departments asking for increased funding, but added that he still believes student groups are incredibly important.
“There’s only so much money and profit that they make at the end of the year,” he said. “[But] I’m really rooting for clubs.”
