PSSS Moves to Donate Partial Class Budgets to CEA Fund

Kay Bailey

She/Her

Editor-in-Chief

2/23/25

A new resolution was passed at Plymouth State Student Senate Monday night, a practice directly related to the news that no more club and org. allocations would be released at the start of the Spring semester. Resolution R.AY2452.3, drafted and proposed by USSB Trustee Ethan Dupius, aimed to relieve the financial strain many club leaders are feeling.

With only about $7,000 left in the conferences, events, and activities (CEA) fund, Dupis suggested that Student Senate classes voluntarily reduce their funds for the rest of the school year, instead using that money to support clubs and organizations looking to request extra funding for events or programs. The resolution seeks a “more inclusive and well-rounded experience for all students.” Placing PSSS on the pinnacle of good finance practices, Dupuis emphasized “if the student senate doesn’t have the capacity or means to spend our funds, those funds ought to go to supporting student clubs and orgs.”

The resolution asks that each class council make a comprehensive plan for how they plan to spend at least 50% of their money, and if they want to spend more than 50% before the school year is over, to make a proposal that PSSS would approve. The approximate total funds that would come from the classes sat at $3,000 in the original resolution; $500 from the class of 2028, $1000 from the class of 2027, and $1500 from the class of 2026 – with the class of 2025 being a bit unknown without senior-week planning completed.

“This is not going to solve our issues, but it’s certainly going to help and make sure that money isn’t actually going to be wasted,” Dupuis said, speaking to class councils’ historic tendency to not spend their full budget. Any funds not spent, whether by club and orgs or PSSS, will be reabsorbed into the larger university system. 

Liam Levitt, Student Body President, had similar thoughts towards the benefits of the resolution. “Every year, Melina [Baker-Murphy] is begging us to spend our money,” he said. “We’re trying to help other students from clubs who are angry at us right now for not giving them money, to get money that they can have access to.”

PSSS amended the resolution to include a 50% portion of their general budget as well, an addition of $3,900 proposed by 2025 Class President Olivia Griffin. “We have $7,000 and we have no financial plan for that $7,000,” Griffin said.

The resolution passed unanimously, with an approximate total of $6,900 set to be funneled into the CEA fund.

In the final minutes of the meeting, Griffin voiced a common constituent concern from student leaders on the lack of additional allocation disbursement — a growing concern with the lack of communication from Student Life and PSU administration. “A lot of people were upset that… rather than [hear] from Student Life or something like that, they heard it from The Clock.” Griffin looked to Student Life Director  Jessica Dutille and Associate Director of Student Engagement Student Melina Baker-Murphy for accountability.

Dutille attributed the lack of additional allocations for the Spring semester partially to a since-drained COVID fund, with the remainder of the deficit the result of low enrollment and transfer turnover. “For the past couple years, we had some COVID funds that we had access to, and [Melina] advocated to roll over [funds] coming out of COVID, to really revamp some of the clubs and orgs that really were negatively impacted during the pandemic.”

Without that COVID fund, Dutille stated, allocations were always going to be lower throughout this year. Dutille said some of the confusion and distrust is coming from how the allocations were dispersed. “When the funds were released, it was labeled Fall allocation,” with the hope that the label would be seen as yearly allocations being distributed in the Fall, she said.

In years past, student club and org allocations have been distributed with a yearly label– last year allocations were released as “Club/Organization Allocation for AY 23/24.”

“We’ve been communicating that things can always change,” Dutille said. “Clearly it was a message for us that we needed to be even more clear with the process.”