New dilemmas are beginning to arise due to behind-the-scenes budget issuance toward student and department organizations. This is not due to the typical budget cuts, but rather the budget reallocations that are decreasing the amount of money student programs receive. While this is not profoundly affecting the pockets of Stetson students, this situation does influence the present and future of campus vibrancy. 

The fact of the matter lies in the projected enrollment trajectory, a process that is based on how many students are expected to attend Stetson the following school year. Coordinator of Student Organization Advising and Programming, Crystal Baroni, explains, “So it’s [the budget] not being cut, it is being reallocated based on how many fees were paid from students that enrolled.” The aforementioned fees that students are required to pay as part of their tuition is The Student Life Fee, which is money entrusted to the Student Government Association to distribute to various departments, student organizations and groups to use for their operations at Stetson.  Many students might have recognized the increase in their billing statements, notably due to the bill passed by SGA in the 2022-2023 school year that raised the Student Life Fee by $20.

Although it might seem like a trivial price at first glance, with the hefty amount of money Stetson students are already paying, it can make quite a difference to many on campus. What is to be remembered, however, is the main objective of the seemingly debated fee for student organizations. Director of Student Development and Campus Vibrancy Jimmy Kelly speaks on the matter, “The intention of the student activity fee is for it to go back and benefit the student experience.” Homecoming Week and events produced by Hatter Productions are just a few of the contributions that enhance the student livelihood at Stetson. The money utilized from the Student Life Fee outputs just as much, if not more, benefits to the student body than they would have otherwise. Stetson student Alexandria Metivier ’26 says, “I like going to Stetson events because it’s a safe and accessible way to hang out with people. It’s also a chance to relax during a busy semester.”

Despite the Student Life Fee increase, budgets still had to be reallocated across campus. The main root of this cause is neither the Stetson faculty nor the SGA, but rather the students who did not enroll. “All of that is based on how many people we think are coming back for like sophomore, junior, senior year classes, as well as how many students enrollment management thinks that they will be able to bring into the first class and through transfer students. So when we hit that mark, we have the projected budget,” Kelly elaborates. The mark Kelly was referring to was not met this 2023-2024 school year. When the student enrollment projections are not met, the need for budget reallocations arises for student departments and organizations. “In turn, we allocated more money than we actually brought in. So that’s where we had to see like, okay, the budget cuts had to happen because we have money allocated that we don’t actually have,” Kelly concluded. 

Students dropping out of Stetson at the last minute is becoming a more frequent occurrence; enough for Stetson to designate a proper name to this hindrance that’s stirring up all the changes. Senior Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing, Jeffery Gates, explains that it is classified as “Melt, or students who say that they’re going to come by submitting an enrollment deposit, and then who don’t show up, you know, when classes start.” This issue is not for Stetson’s lack of trying, either. There is a fairly large pool of applicants that Stetson is receiving and reviewing. Gates says, “As of today, our applications for the Fall of ‘24 are 24% higher than they were last year at this time.” This ‘melt’ is one of the main drawbacks that contributes to the misinterpretations made by current students, leading some to blame Stetson entirely. Though, it is not just a factor out of Stetson’s control, but universities nationwide. According to the Brookings Institution, college enrollment has declined since the pandemic, with the biggest declines happening in Fall 2020 as first-time enrollment decreased about 10% and overall enrollment fell 2.5%, slowing ever since. This decline is certainly not missed at Stetson, as student melt continues to tamper with the enrollment trajectories made before the start of the school year. 

The ramifications of this difficulty circle back to student departments and organizations, causing a need for revised budget allocation. Despite this notable change in budget, however, student organizations were not impacted– only department programs and organizations were. “In doing budget cuts, the student organization money was not touched. So we were very happy, like as we had to cut budget because of enrollment numbers,” Kelly happily reiterates. Unlike department organizations, which operate directly for the university and are allocated a set amount of money by SGA, student organizations are generally run by students themselves and anyone interested in joining. In order to operate, student organizations must obtain their money from SGA budget hearings, a process where SGA distributes 13.5% of the Student Life Fee once a semester. Based on the case student organizations present, SGA decides on how much money they need. In turn, student organizations continue to operate as per usual, but the same cannot be said for department organizations, as some took rather significant hits this school year. 

“We pulled money from other spaces, basically, department operations was the main draw, but then also some department programs like Hatter Productions, or homecoming, and some of that there’s like a couple of those organizations that have much larger budgets that we took down,” Kelly explains. In total this year, department programs received $265,500 across the board. While this seems like a solid amount compared to the preliminary estimation of $296,700 made before the start of the school year, a  $31,200 gap still had to be accounted for. This budget reallocation is then distributed to organizations based on various factors, relying on fairness and importance.  “…Okay, these bigger programs are going to take a bigger hit. So like Homecoming saw a $10,000 cut. And one of the biggest reasons that was one of the more significant cut ones: it’s a week long. There’s a lot of stuff going on, but it’s only a week kind of production,” Kelly explains. 

Though every department program is of equal importance to the Stetson community, the variety of factors including timing, specific use, and student-reach has to be taken into account to adequately reallocate the budget to the department programs that cannot afford to lose more of their budget. Ariel Castillo, Co-Director of Homecoming, says, “There was a lot of shuffling and like, okay, we need to lower the amount of things we’re buying for this or lower the amount of Schmancy pops we ordered. All of that is basically just like, shuffling around stuff to be able to like fit within the budget that had been taken.”

Even with these adjustments organizations have to forge through, students and faculty alike are set on ensuring that this does not touch the vibrancy of student life for present and future times. “It’s not that we’re going to like throw crappy programs out there, it’s just that we have to think outside the box, and come up with new innovative exciting things that students want to see and engage with, but also operate within a certain budget,” Kelly assures. Though high-profile figures like Joe Gatto will not be appearing anytime soon, the expectations of vibrancy that students expect are not to be lowered. As Larry Correll-Hughes, Associate Vice President of Campus Life, says, “You can get a lot of quality without as high of a price tag.”

As a result of the Student Life Fee increase, student department organizations only have to focus on being frugal. To put it lightly, budget reductions could have been substantially deficient, and they could have much more to focus and worry about. However, along with the fee, another rationale contributed to the deflected reductions. Kelly emphasizes, “While our department organizations were cut, the bulk of the money came out of our own department, like operating budgets.” Direct departments, such as Campus Life and Vibrancy and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, were also affected. “All of these departments on campus also took significant hits, so that it didn’t impact students,” he continued. 

As students and faculty continue to work together to adapt to the budget reductions, Stetson is also moving forward to mitigate the recurring changes of budget reduction. By conservatively  measuring the projected number of students that will enroll, the worst-case scenario is that Stetson would safely make its mark or anticipate a higher number of students than expected. New projects like the Stetson Summer Orientation guarantee accurate enrollment numbers, as Gates reports, “95% of the students who came to that program [summer orientation] ended up enrolling this fall.” With these projections, the collection of student life activity fees is all the more accurate, which safely ensures the budgets of student organizations and departments in the years yet to come.