With the end of the semester only a week away, the Student Finance Committee (SFC) still has funds leftover, which will benefit students in the future.

Andrew Foster, Chairperson of the SFC, said the money leftover, a sum of $21,133.03, will go into next semester’s fund. Although it seems like a substantial amount to have left unspent, Foster said it is not unusual to have money left over.

“We aim to responsibly disperse all funds in a given semester,” Foster said. “Of course, accomplishing this is dependent on the number of student organizations requesting funds.”

The Student Finance Committee (SFC) is a student-run organization in charge of allocating the money from the Student Activity Fee.

During the 2008-2009 year, every student taking more than 12 credit hours paid $31.13 into the Student Activity Fee.

Beau Niec, the president of Platform Personalities, which was allocated around $38,000 this year, said the rollover system works well.

“The money stays in the Student Activity Fee,” he said. “It doesn’t go somewhere else; it doesn’t go to the heating of buildings or anything like that.”

The money from the Student Activity Fee is allocated in one of two ways. First, there are certain earmarked fund groups (EFGs) that are automatically allocated money at the start of a semester, such as Platform Personalities or Campus Cinema.

Niec said if an organization wants to gain EFG status, it needs to show the SFC that it is capable of routinely holding successful events.

The other way to receive money from the Student Activity Fee is to present a proposal to the SFC. To do this, an organization must put in a budget request form to the ASNMU office and organize their idea to go before the SFC.

“You have to be prepared to submit a budget to the SFC. It’s important that you come prepared because you’re asking for students’ money,” said Niec. “The SFC’s job is to spend the money on things that will benefit students.”

The amount of money in the Student Activity Fee is dependent upon the enrollment for that semester. At the start of this semester, the SFC had a total of $204,309.06 funds available. This number includes the amount leftover from last semester, as well as the allocation from the Student Activity Fee this semester.

Of that number, $93,307.50 was automatically given to the EFGs, which left $110,001.56 for the SFC to distribute to student groups. This semester, $93,868.53 was allocated to various student groups.