More than two-thirds of Miami University's 300 student organizations facing financial problems are working their way out of debt.
Associated Student Government (ASG)'s debt relief program, now finishing its first semester, is helping student organizations better manage their finances.
According to Vice President of student organizations Jon McNabb, student organizations currently share a debt of $121,801.
However McNabb said this is down from the beginning of the school year, when the debt totaled $131,739.
McNabb and Andy Ferguson, ASG treasurer, attribute the decline to ASG's Responsibility and Relief Act of 2008, which was created in September to simplify the debt relief process.
The original plan, passed last April, encouraged student organizations to raise funds, which ASG then matched at varying percentages according to a three-tiered system.
The new plan, authored by McNabb, requires that student organizations maintain a positive balance in their university accounts at all times, meaning organizations cannot go farther into debt. Under the plan, ASG provides matching funds at a rate of 200 percent, regardless of how much money the organization raises.
For example, if an organization raises $500 to put toward debt relief, ASG will donate $1,000 to its debt relief cause.
"Jon McNabb and I realized that there was a large number of organizations in debt, and that we should be more accountable with our money," Ferguson said.
McNabb said the program had been in the planning stages for many years and mentioned in former Student Body President Jens Sutmöller's state of the student body address in January 2008.
"This project had been worked on for many years, and ASG wanted to come up with a way to facilitate debt relief for our organizations," McNabb said.
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McNabb explained that organizations under the program must pay back at least $100 of the debt each semester. After ASG's matching funds are added in, each organization has pulled itself at least $300 closer to getting out of debt every semester.
"We're here to hold (student organizations) accountable and make sure that the money is spent wisely," Ferguson said. "We're trying to help these organizations maintain a positive balance."
Approximately two-thirds of student organizations are taking advantage of the program, McNabb said, with one-third of those organizations expected to pay off their debt by ASG's second funding cycle deadline Jan. 23, 2009.
These results are promising, McNabb said, but he said he doesn't expect programs with a large amount of debt to see immediate results.
However, Ferguson remains optimistic, claiming ASG will continue to commit to work with student organizations on campus.
"When we (ASG) go to request money from the university next year, we hope they will take these efforts into consideration and the budget crisis won't have a great effect on student organizations' budgets for next year," Ferguson said.
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