COMPETENCIES:

– Moral, Ethical & Spiritual Compass

– Visionary Leadership

– Quality Programming

– Assessment & Evaluation

– Counseling & Personal Development

– Budgeting & Fiscal Management

– Fostering Student Learning

– Legal & Ethical Issues

– Effective Campus & Community Relationships

– Managing Conflict & Crisis

– Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, & Skills

– Technology

Budgeting & Fiscal Management

1. LA-Term Budget

When I first arrived at LA-Term, they did not have a designated budget for any facet of the program. The other program coordinator and I planned on creating one, but when it became part of an assignment in our Administration in College Student Affairs course (CSA 543), we decided to design it as close to what was needed for the program as possible. Because it was the first ever budget designed for LA-Term, we had to conduct a large amount of research. We met with the associate director and over the period of a few weeks created a thorough budget, which encapsulated just about every activity within the program. We presented the budget to a student affairs professional in class and received approval.

Here is our Final Budget as well as the Rationale for how we organized it.

2. Communiversity Budget

During my first graduate assistantship, I was required to oversee spending of a large sum of money for the entire year. I had direct access to the account and within the first month of the school year, I had to budget the entire year’s programs, activities, club fees, and many other expenses. After dispersing all the allotted money to each club by the Fall, we decided to move some money into our Coffee Houses budget which had previously been under-funded. Throughout the year, each time a club officer turned in an expense reimbursement form, it was my responsibility to manage the process of copying their receipts, turning them into the business office and getting the club officer their money back in a reasonable amount of time.

3. Clubs & Orgs

It was also my responsibility to allot specific amounts of our budget to each club and organization on campus. In an attempt to better serve the student body, we decided to change how the money had been allocated. Rather than have each club receive that same amount, we instead divided the clubs into three categories: new clubs, clubs, and organizations. The purpose of this was to create hierarchy based on student involvement, cause, tenure, and on-campus presence. While it was possible for new clubs to move down the line and become clubs and eventually orgs, it was designed to be a long process to deter newer clubs from taking away from returning, long-lasting clubs’ finances. These definitions helped us apportion our budget to the clubs and organizations much easier and more fairly.