The Executive Board faced a big challenge this year, expecting a significant drop in activity fee revenue as the Class of 2003—which entered as the largest freshman class in Rensselaer’s history—will depart and the incoming Class of 2007 is expected to continue a trend of moving the undergraduate population to a more “normal” level.

“This was probably one of the toughest budgeting years I can remember in the 25 years I’ve been here,” said Rick Hartt, director of the Union.

Responding to this outlook, President of the Union Zachary Ament led the E-Board into budgeting with a philosophy of supporting “core and critical” programs, trimming budgets wherever possible to keep the activity fee from inflating.

In previous years, the E-Board would review the budgets submitted by each club, athletic team, and service, and evaluate each line on the basis of what was reasonable to fund. This year, each line was considered for whether it was a core component of the club’s purpose.

“In doing that, we came up with budget numbers that are much lower than in previous years, while still providing the experience that students have come to expect,” said Michael Borzumate, chair of the Activity Fee Subcommittee.

“If the board had simply said status quo is fine,” Hartt said, “the activity fee would have been, in addition, another $30 per year.”

E-Board representatives began communicating with their clubs early in the process, so that the budgets approved by the E-Board would not be a surprise. “Everyone’s budget was looked at in a consistent and fair manner,” Ament said.

“When the budgeting was all done and said, everyone understood why we are where we are,” he said.

Ament was impressed with the efforts put forth by the clubs, even before the E-Board’s budget reviews began. “They made most of the changes themselves,” he said. “They did a great job of doing the budgeting themselves.”

However, “There were some tough decisions made,” Ament said. One of those decisions was to cut travel budgets for clubs, except where travel was critical to the club’s operation. The E-Board recommended that those funds be redirected toward programs that could be held on campus, which affect more than just a few students.

“It makes more sense to concentrate on things going on on campus,” Borzumate said.

While the current budget crunch is expected to ease in the future, the “core and critical” philosophy is likely to be a guiding principle for future budgets.

“The groundwork that was laid this year will be carried forward in the future,” Hartt said.

However, conditions are expected to improve over the next few years as the undergraduate population stabilizes.

“The feeling is this is more of a temporary situation,” Borzumate said. “I think ‘core and critical’ is here to stay, it’s just a matter of how much leeway we have in that.”

“This was probably the hardest year of the process because this is the adjustment year,” Ament said.