Students pay a $19.63 fee to NC State for the University Activities Board (UAB), which hosts events such as the Homecoming Concert, trivia nights, movie screenings and the annual Target Run. This year, students are now able to see the programming budget for UAB to better understand how their student fees are used by the board.
According to Brianna Murphy, UAB vice president of internal affairs, works to facilitate events that bring about a positive campus culture. All members of UAB are students and make up six committees within the larger organization: Concerts & Entertainment, Leisure & Recreation, Speakers & Professional Development, Diversity Activities Board, Black Students Board and Film.
For each event put on, staple or new, each chair of the committee must submit a program proposal with a name, description, event necessities and budget, which must be approved by the vice president of finance before the proposal is submitted, according to Murphy. The proposal is submitted to the executive board consisting of the president, vice president of finance, vice president of communication and vice president of internal affairs for approval.
If the budget amounts to less than $500, the executive board can approve the event. If it requires more funding, it must be approved by all committees and the marketing team at their leadership team meetings. According to Murphy, events are rarely not approved, because the processes up to the program proposal stage involves a lot of collaboration so they are able to catch any mistakes before final approval.
According to UAB’s programming budget from the 2018-2019 school year, $381,900 was allocated between 20 events, film rights and eight line items, such as Wolfpack Welcome Week events and the Wolfstock concert. Murphy said that the goal for making the budget public was so that more students would understand where their student fees are going.
“I think our goal that we have this year is how we can be more transparent and inform the students on stuff that’s happening, so that was our reason for putting up this programming summary on our website this summer,” Murphy said. “Especially because everybody pays this fee, but it’s kind of, where exactly does the money go?”
Murphy said especially during the first few weeks of school, the value of UAB is felt around campus because events cater to reach students across the board.
“I think it’s good especially during welcome week, to put on events like this that bring the campus community together, which gives them something fun to do before classes start,” Murphy said. “I think it’s great that we put on such a variety of events to hopefully reach every student on campus in some way.”
