With Guilford College’s financial struggles now out in the open, it raises questions about the funding that student clubs and organizations depend on. Over the past four years, since the onset of COVID-19, club budgets have steadily declined — and now we finally have an explanation.
Guilford’s financial situation came to light in the latest Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) accreditation report.
Following the fall semester, the Guilford Student Body Association (GSBA), along with much of the campus, was placed on a spending freeze to conserve funds. This means that all clubs on campus are now unable to get any funding from their budgets that were provided at the beginning of the academic year.
This is felt across campus with no activities to speak of and anxiety growing in this period of transition. Students wonder what to do now with no budget and an uncertain future for their beloved club communities.
GSBA has been working tirelessly with clubs despite the lack of budget.
“You have to know how hard people are fighting for you,” said Lisa Cook, assistant director of the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement (OSLE) and a club advisor. “We understand your frustration, but we will fight harder. GSBA will fight harder.”
When asked about the advice GSBA provided to clubs for planning future budgets, GSBA president Jacob Mitchell responded with a measured suggestion, stating, “Prepare for both options.”
Campus clubs should plan with the expectation of limited budgets in the coming years while fostering a sense of optimism. They should aim to document ideas and strategies to ensure future success if budgets eventually return to sustainable levels.
On Friday, Jan. 9, Cook followed up with clubs, stating: “We still do not have access to club funds, so meetings and events will likely need to be free of cost.”
“That said, please, please, please keep meeting, keep spending time together, and ask for help if you need ideas,” she continued.
According to Cook, GSBA is “finding access to funding in other resources or alumni groups, finding ways to receive donations (ie. food, supplies) from the community or specific donors, and if we can eventually finalize guidelines around fundraising.” Clubs should focus on putting on easy events that are free for anyone on campus to attend.
In the open meeting, the Coordinating Committee hosted the community to ask questions and give perspective on what is happening on campus. When asked about club budgets and the lack of community on campus, the acting president stated, “We’ve been talking about it since it was brought to our attention yesterday. We are hoping to have answers in the coming week but I don’t want to make any promises.”
A key point raised during the meeting by Gwen Erickson, Guilford’s historical archivist, was the issue of the student activity fee.
“Students pay a student activity fee as part of their tuition. The fact that there’s no money for them means there’s a misuse of college funds,” Erickson observed.
Cook also provided more context about this fee in the Jan. 10 open meeting provided by the
Coordinating Committee, saying, “It was approved last spring to raise the student activity fee from $190 to $250 per semester, and in the spirit of increasing the club spending, that happened.”
“I don’t have all the context, but a large part of why club spending took a dip a couple of years ago was when the enrollment numbers went down,” Cook continued. “There just weren’t the same number of students.” This tells us that the fee increased but there is still no money being provided to clubs as of Jan. 10.
Cook also provided context into another issue that GSBA and Interim Provost Susanna Westberg, who also serves as our Dean of Students, have faced in their workings with the finance department.
“Susanna did further digging with finance about what is the actual number that is going to go into Workday, and not just the number that was given to us in September,” Cook said. “That is when we found out that we were dealing with what we’ve all termed as ‘Monopoly money,’ and that all of the money clubs and organizations spent during the fall was actually not real money.”
In practical terms, this meant that clubs weren’t spending from actual funds but were instead contributing to the college’s growing deficit. As a result, a spending freeze was imposed in December to prevent further debt accumulation.
While there are no current concert updates from OLSE, GSBA or Coordinating Committee, they are hoping to have more answers in the coming weeks and want to ensure that they are still working tirelessly to help clubs and organizations get funding and have an active campus life.
“Community and memory-making are still very important, and while it might look different than you prefer, they still matter a great deal,” Cook stated in her most recent update to clubs.