Student government presents new budget during Board of Trustees

By Delfino Camacho • September 7, 2023

Associated Students Organization (ASO) Vice President Jeon Park (left) and President Jose Merino led a presentation about the organization’s 2023-2024 budget during the Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 6. Speaking to The Union after the presentation, Merino said ASO’s goal was to continue to “be transparent” with all issues concerning ASO. (Khoury Williams | The Union)

The Associated Students Organization gave a presentation detailing changes in the new 2023-24 budget and presented a preview of planned calendar events during the Sept. 6 Board of Trustees meeting at El Camino College.

A part of the presentation was the reveal that the organization’s funding had been relieved in part by aid from the college. Originally, the Associated Students Organization (ASO) was responsible for funding their advisor’s salaries. Those salaries are now being paid for by the college, freeing up monetary resources representatives said will go back to students.

President Jose Merino and Vice President Jeon Park of the ASO co-led the presentation after open session began at around 6:12 p.m.

The student representatives began their segment by stating the ASO is “here for the students, by the students,” and continued their presentation by including a breakdown of fund 71, known as the associated student body fund.

As previously reported by The Union, the ASO funding is generated entirely by the organization’s $15 Benefit Pass, which students choose to pay for.

“So fund 71, or the associated student body fund, is completely composed of the revenue from the ASO benefits pass,” Merino said. “We completely have our own budget..it’s just the students who pay in the budget.”

Associated Students Organization (ASO) Vice President Jeon Park (front) and President Jose Merino take to the podium at the Board of Trustees office to discuss the 2023-2024 budget, during the Sept. 6 meeting. The ASO leaders closed their presentation by showcasing a calendar of events for the current academic year. (Khoury Williams | The Union)

Park said the portions of fund 71 that used to go towards paying salaries no longer do, partially due to the efforts of both Vice President of Administrative Services Robert Suppelsa and Student Services Vice President Jeff Stephenson.

“We’d like to thank [both vice presidents] for working with us and making that shift in the funds and salaries possible,” Merino said.

Park said with those funds freed up more money can be used for students in the form of advocacy and action plans.

Merino and Park gave further details into what the current ASO budget looks like. According to Merino, 95% of fund 71 is composed entirely of Benefit Pass sales, which in the last academic year totaled out at $350,000.

“The remaining 5% [of the budget] is accrued interest from our reserves, which totaled out to $19,000 last academic year,” Merino said. “Now ASO is committed to improving the promotion of the Benefits Pass and increasing the return on investment for our pass holders.”

Park highlighted two slides in the presentation demonstrating the monetary increase in the ASO’s budget following the removal of salary payments responsibilities.

One pie chart represented what the split of fund 71 looked like when the ASO was still paying for advisor salaries. Salaries composed nearly 46.9% of the total of fund 71.

Screenshot taken from the ASO 2023-24 budget presentation presented by the ASO during the Sept. 6 Board of Trustees meeting. This slide shows how much fund 71, or the associated students fund, used to be split when the ASO was responsible advisor salaries. Salaries took up nearly 50% of the whole budget.

Even with salaries taking such a big piece of the pie, Park further explained ASO would still be dipping into their reserve funds to pay for the salaries, amounting to nearly $8,500.

“Now with a large portion of the salaries removed, you’ve now freed up about $110,000 to enact our advocacy and action plan,” Park said. “I’d like to note that with this amended budget, over 80% of this funding will now be able to go directly back to students instead of funding salaries.”

Screenshot taken from the ASO 2023-24 budget presentation given by the ASO during the Sept. 6 Board of Trustees meeting. This slide shows how much fund 71, or the associated students fund, is currently split. With fund 71 no longer responsible for salaries they can dedicate more funds for advocacy projects.

Merino and Park ended their presentation by showcasing their priorities for the upcoming academic year and by previewing their calendar of planned events: a student support expo later this month and finals madness in December among others.

Screenshot taken from the ASO 2023-24 budget presentation presented by the ASO during the Sept. 6 Board of Trustees meeting. This slide shows some of the campus marquee events the Associated Students Organization will help organize and pay for this semester.

Trustee Nilo Michelin complimented the students saying they had done “great work.”

“I think the effort is just to be as transparent as possible, this is something that the board has never ever seen before,” Merino said to The Union. “So we just want to be as transparent as possible with our partners.”

Toward the end of the meeting new student Trustee Connor Lai also gave a brief report in which he mentioned college wide events such as last week’s Flying Start and this week’s Majors Week.

Lai said programs like these and those that the ASO is planning emphasis all the resources available to students.

“These are really cool events that [explore] all the resources that are available and we see students engaging and really exploring these resources,” Lai said. “As mentioned before, this really helps with retention which is amazing.”

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