Associated Students, Inc. is the recognized student government at Fresno State.­ Each semester, students pay several fees, one of which is the Student Body Fee of $34.50.

The Student Body Fee is divided between four different campus entities: ASI receives $15.00, Intercollegiate Athletics and Financial Aid each receive $7.00 and this newspaper receives $5.50. ASI calculates its budget by multiplying the semester fee with the projected enrollment and then subtracting roughly 6 percent of the total to account for fee waivers and changes in enrollment.­ A small percentage of students receive fee waivers, and do not have to pay student fees.

For the 2012-2013 academic year, ASI is projecting to have a total budget of $624,490.00. Because the university has projected that more students will enroll (and thus more students will pay the fee) next fall, there is more revenue reflected in the new ASI budget than there was for this academic year.

Operating Expenses:­

As a corporation that functions independently of the university, ASI has many expenses that are necessary to continue the operations of the organization. These expenses include insurance, salaries and benefits for our full-time staff, salaries for our student assistants and student executives, office supplies, phone bills and postage costs.

California State Student Association:

CSSA is the system-wide lobbying organization for CSU students.­ Every CSU campus, including Fresno State, has student representatives and a vote in the CSSA organization.­ Fresno State students sit on state-wide committees and attend meetings and lobbying events through CSSA.­ ASI pays dues to be part of the organization and pays for the traveling expenses of participating students to ensure that Fresno State students have effective representation on a state-wide level.

Grants, Scholarships and Club Funding:

ASI is committed to giving money directly back to students through grants, scholarships and club funding.­ ASI provides students with money for research projects through the rGrant program, which has been increased by $7,500 in next year’s budget.­ ASI also provides student clubs and organizations with up to $2,000 per club to host events on campus.­ This allows clubs and organizations to put on cultural events, bring speakers to campus or hold social events for students.

ASI also gives money back to students in the form of scholarships.­ With the cost of tuition increasing ”” and government support declining ”” more and more students are having trouble affording their education, so ASI gives out $250 to $1,000 scholarships to students.­ ASI has several scholarship endowments that are added to each year to make these scholarships possible. ASI has budgeted a $5,000 addition to scholarship endowments for next year.

Club Sports and Community Revitalization:

Club Sports and Revitalization are two projects that are somewhat new to ASI but have done well and will receive increased support next year.­ ASI pays for the insurance that allows club sports teams to practice and play in their respective sports and will continue to do so.­ The Revitalize the Fresno State Community effort began this year using reserve funds.­ The program is sustained through the service of an AmeriCorps volunteer.­ The AmeriCorps volunteer works 40 hours a week for one year and the expense of their salary is split between ASI and the AmeriCorps program.­ ASI will hire another AmeriCorps volunteer in August to carry on the efforts of Revitalization.­ Additionally, because of the high numbers of student involvement and success of the program, ASI has increased the Community Revitalization support from $2,000 to $5,000.

New and Continuing Programs:

ASI has many successful programs that it will continue to fund.­ Some of these programs include the laptop loan program in the Henry Madden Library, the readership program that provides the Fresno Bee and New York Times to students for free, campus leadership development, the ASI computer lab in the USU, scholarship funding for the Maddy Institute on campus and support for intramural sports.

Additionally, ASI created a Lobby Corps in 2008 to increase student lobbying efforts.­ With the recent addition of the vice president of external affairs position, ASI plans to increase its legislative initiatives and lobbying efforts.­ As a student government and as the representative body for Fresno State students, this is an important and central function of ASI. ASI has­ continued to fund Lobby Corps to meet this goal.

ASI is also excited to announce many new partnerships and programs.­ ASI will fund its first annual speaker series that aims to bring speakers to Fresno State to promote leadership and involvement on campus. ASI has also committed to funding International Culture Night and International Coffee Hour, as these are two wonderful campus programs that support diversity and inclusion on our campus.

Past ASI Budgets are available on the ASI website at asi.fresnostate.edu. The budget for the 2012-2013 academic year was an informational item at an ASI meeting on April 11.­ Several questions and comments were made as the budget was reviewed.­ The budget was passed by a unanimous vote of the ASI Senate on April 25. James Stinecipher, ASI’s Vice President of Finance, and I support the budget and it has been sent forward to President Welty for approval.

This is the third column in a three-part series on budgets and fees.

Selena Farnesi is the president of Associated Students, Inc. Follow her on Twitter @SMFarnesi.