Wednesday, April 1, the annual Washburn Student Government Association audit was held after the weekly 6:30 p.m. senate meeting in Washburn A/B.
The purpose of the audit is to shape the annual budget funded by the student activity fee. The fee is a flat rate of $70 charged to every Washburn student at the beginning of the spring and fall semesters, regardless of whether or not the student is attending classes online or in-person.
The fee provides funding for several campus organizations that carry services, or events for students at no extra cost, including WSGA, Student Media, Campus Activities Board, University Child Development, Cheer Squad and the Dancing Blues.
For the 2025 fall semester and spring 2026 semester the confirmed allocated numbers according to WSGA came out to $670,421.50, with the following allocations:
WSGA receiving $442,345.05
Student Media receiving $120,065.09
CAB receiving $69,511.36
Homecoming receiving $8,000
Cheer squad receiving $18,300
and the Dancing Blues receiving $12,200
Representatives of Student Media, CAB, Cheer squad and the Dancing Blues were all present at the audit to explain how they used their current funds and to request any adjustments to their budget.
Tia Benyshek, spirit fund coordinator, spoke on behalf of the Cheer Squad and the Dancing Blues. She requested adjusted support going into the next school year.
Benyshek said that the spirit teams came to the senate last year requesting $10,000 for new uniforms which was not approved. The spirit program absorbed the cost across the Dancing Blues and Cheer squad teams creating a deficit of $9,990.97 in the budget.
Benyshek asked for a one time allocation of $10,000 to take the program out of its deficit. She also requested an increase of $1,000 per team member annually. This would be $500 per student, per semester, for each of the 30 cheer leaders on the roster, as well as 15 dancers and three mascots.
The senate stated that they would need to follow up with the program in order to coordinate a senate bill that would allow them to allocate the $10,000.
Cheyenne Hittle, Indigo Magazine Editor In Chief, represented Student Media.
Hittle explained that as an organization that offers student jobs on campus their largest expenditure is paying their employees salaries. The organization spends over $70,000 every year to pay their employees.
Hittle also stated that Student Media averages about 50-65 employees each semester but also explained that there is a high turnover rate due to the organization allowing all applicants to be hired on a trial run basis.
Student Media used to receive 30% of the student activity fee but currently gets 19%. WSGA President Kate Coulter pointed out the reason for this change.
“Yes there was a percentage decrease for this entity, however, there was also a student fee increase,” Coulter said. “If we had kept the percentage with the student fee increase it would have allowed a $200,000 addition to their budget. That is why the percentage went down.”
Currently Student Media has $30,000 unused in their yearly budget. Regina Cassell, director of Student Media, said she was happy with the allocation and was not requesting any additional funding.
Archana Adhikari, CAB director, represented CAB for the evening and spoke about the importance of their free campus wide events as well.
Adhikari said two of the four CAB directors will be graduating at the end of the current semester. This means two new employees will need to be hired and trained.
A majority of the CAB budget was spent on artist fees for a former “America’s Got Talent” contestant and stand-up comedian, Preacher Lawson who performed on campus during the Washburn Family Weekend. CAB spent $33,164.47 on the performance.
CAB did not request any increase in allocations.
WSGA and the homecoming budgets were tabled until the following Wednesday, April 8, after the senate meeting.
Edited by Stuti Khadka
