ASWU Finance
Welcome, club presidents and treasurers!
Thank you for visiting the finance section of the website. Below you will find a packet which includes all the information that was provided in the 2007 student organization orientation given by the Office of Student Activities (OSA) and the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU). We hope that this information will be what you need to smoothly and effectively run your club's financial activity during the 2007-2008 academic year.
Inside this packet, you will find information regarding your club's various accounts, ways of accessing and managing them, the ASWU Finance Board, the budgeting process, and most importantly - how you can request and receive funding for your student organization. It is very important that you and your fellow club leaders familiarize yourself well with the information in the packet provided (see link below). Furthermore, we recommend that you print it out and hold onto it as a reference for the remainder of the year, because it is intended to provide you with information that will prove useful in the future as well as during the more immediate spring budgeting process.
Once again, thank you for your club’s involvement on campus and with ASWU. If you have any questions at all about the information in this packet please do not hesitate to stop by the ASWU office on the 3rd floor of the UC. You may also call the ASWU office at extension 6058.
Download 2008 Finance Packet Here
Download Student Organization Orientation Powerpoint Here
Download Helpful Tips on How to Effectively Request ASWU Funding Here.
Download Fall 2007 ASWU Budget Here.
Spring 2008 Club Budget Requests
Student organizations interested in applying for ASWU funding must turn in an ASWU Budget Request Form and an Inventory Disclosure form.
These forms are due online by: Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 5:00pm
Download Inventory Disclosure Form Here.
Download Budget Request Form Here.
Submit 2008 Budget Request Forms Here
If you have any questions please contact Julie Christine.
ASWU ENDOWMENT
The ASWU Endowment was created in 2001 as a one-time investment in the Willamette University Endowment Fund after a budget surplus carry-over in the amount of $33,000 during 2000-2001 fiscal year. In 2001, ASWU VP Finances Andrew Cockrell encouraged the Finance Board to make a fiscally responsible investment of the windfall into the Willamette Endowment in trust for the student body. The Finance Board recommended an initial allocation of $10,000. This investment was to be the first step in a journey of designing the financial stability and sustainability of student activities and organizations at Willamette University.
The ASWU Endowment is an investment by the Associated Students in the Willamette University Endowment Fund. The WU Endowment is professionally administered by the University’s financial managers and consistently overachieves aggregate financial growth projections. In both recent bull and bear economic cycles, the Willamette Endowment has consistently outperformed the market and its indices. The Endowment has investments in the United States, international equities, domestic and international currencies, domestic real estate, and other diverse market holdings. The Associated Student’s Endowment enjoys the same rate or returns and purchase power as the University Endowment. On the management side, the ASWU endowment will function less as a typical endowment may, and more as a quasi-endowment or revolving fund (beneficiaries of typical endowments only spend a portion of the annual return or interest their principal monies generate).
In addition, the ASWU Finances Recycling Program was implemented in 2001 as a four-quarter financial management project to “re-use” and increase employment of student body funds. The Recycling program proved to be a great success in its first year of operation, filtering $3,000 back to student clubs and organizations.
During the 2002-2003 academic year, the Finance Board endorsed the recommendation of VP of Finances, John Turner to invest an additional $10,000 into the Endowment. However, the Finance Board and ASWU Senate placed an allocation stipulation on the investment to create long-term plans. The current efforts to research, discuss, and draft endowment legislation stem from the campaign to clearly define the future investment and operational purpose of the Endowment, the long-term feasibility and sustainability of that investment, and goals to promote wise future use and financial management of this investment made in trust for the undergraduate student population.
Rainy Day Fund vs. Capital Investment Account
What constitutes a rainy day fund for ASWU? And who would decide what a rainy day is? The concept is just too vague in application to ASWU. “The fact of the matter is it’s always stormy here,” says former Finance Board member Justin Lynn. Student organizations and club requests for funding have consistently outpaced revenue by a ration of at least 2 to 1. Additionally, the number of clubs requesting funds has dramatically increased over the past five years.
The Purpose
The purpose of the ASWU Endowment is simply to empower student organizations and provide a financial reality for the dreams and visions of students at Willamette. The Endowment could purchase stable stages for the Hawaii Club’s Lu’au Celebration, finance the purse of lights and SFX equipment for ASWU sound, help buy the hardware for the WIRE’s move to a low or high power FM station, or fund the construction of a student organization resource room in a new Student Center.
The Endowment is not a process to be laden with red tape and administrative headache. The money is not kept hidden away from students. The Endowment fund is an effort to ensure the longevity of student activities and clubs at Willamette. Furthermore, our motto, “Not onto ourselves alone are we born” will be embodied through the future administration of the Endowment as current students invest in future students.