How does ASMSU budget student fees?

Ever wonder what those student activity fees that we pay each semester go to? ASMSU creates a budget each year to determine how the money from student fees will be dispersed on and off campus, funding a total of 14 programs. The student government is in control of student activity fees that each student pays each semester — more than $1 million annually. 

The president of ASMSU, Norris Blossom, provides recommendations of how he believes the funds should be allocated for each program. Once this process is finished, “it goes to a finance board which consists of three senators” and “three at-large students that have volunteered to be on the finance board,” Isaac Birdwell, business manager for ASMSU, said. “So they look at the executive recommendation, make any changes or approvals they see fit and finally it goes to the senate and they debate about how the budget is going to look for the next fiscal year until they get to an agreement and then it gets signed off.”

The process takes the entire spring semester each year from start to finish. ASMSU also receives an estimate in the spring for the student enrollment in the fall to help them calculate a projection of their budget.

One of the budget items implemented last spring, for example, included raising the minimum wage of employees within the ASMSU office. “We’ve budgeted for this next year to maintain that increased salary for all of our employees, so hopefully that’s something that continues in the future,” Ellie Jackson, senate speaker pro tempore, said. “And there has been some other efforts to get student wages increased across the Montana State University System for all student employees at the university, and that’s something that will take a lot longer, but we’ve had conversations with people at the university that are starting to work on that. So hopefully that’s something we can see within the next year.”