BRYN MAWR COLLEGE – Self Governance Association (SGA) funds for clubs this past spring has been cut by over $280,000, or 41%, following a decrease in SGA income and finances.
Club leaders and organizers met last Sunday with SGA for the semesterly budget meeting, where they were informed of the significant decrease in funding for the Spring 2025 semester. SGA also did not allow any individual budget contestations, breaking the tradition of giving students the ability to request higher budgets on the spot. SGA attributed this shift in policy to a lack of surplus funds, meaning that there was no additional money to draw from.
Following the pandemic, during which few clubs were operating and thus fewer funds were being requested, SGA’s budget during this time had only been increasing and even reached almost $1 million dollars by the 23′-24′ academic year. Once students returned to in-person learning, more clubs were established (or reactivated) and could request funding. During semesterly budget meetings at this time, individual budget contestations allowed many clubs to appeal their funding to a higher amount without strong pushback from other clubs, as there had been ‘enough money to go around.’ This happened despite former SGA Treasurer Abhi Suresh’s 24′ and Mia Harvey’s warnings of a need for prudence as the SGA surplus would run out in the future.
SGA told clubs that the pandemic-era financial growth was “unsustainable” and the return to pre-pandemic funding levels was in fact a good thing. However, the budget’s reflection of pre-pandemic levels has come at a time of an increase in clubs on Bryn Mawr’s Campus, the lasting effects of ‘oversized’ class populations, and the rising cost of goods in the U.S.
Though somewhat expected, this economic shock to the Bryn Mawr SGA budget has led the group to cut the Traditions budget by 45%. The events organized and sponsored by Traditions include WTF week, Lantern Night, and May Day. Additionally, SGA has decided to cut the class of 2025 budget by 53%, consolidating costs used for the senior dinner, senior week, and the President’s cruise. These budget cuts were made in order to accommodate the funding of Bryn Mawr College and Bi-Co clubs so that they could obtain, “at least more decent funding”.
Budget Allocation
Of the non-affinity or religious clubs, Bryn Mawr’s Fencing received the highest semesterly budget with $10,108.30 for Spring 2025. Last semester, fencing received the most funding out of all BMC clubs, getting around 3.8% of the $282,834 budget, or $10,747.8.
This semester saw an increase in budget allocation percentage for both the concert series and traditions; however, SGA treasurer Leilani Soriano ’25 wrote that “this did not mean that either organization did not have to face similar budget cuts.” Soriano noted that over $150,000 was cut from all campus events, allowing “all clubs to have at least more decent funding.”
In total, despite a request of over $600,000 from both clubs and traditions, SGA was only able to distribute the amount in their bank account: $404,332.16.
Rep-Co (Representative Council) voted to pass the budget allocation with 30 votes out of 43.
The Future of Funding
SGA ended their slides by saying that clubs should “shift expectations for future budgets moving forward.” Without a surplus of leftover funds, they explained, the only income will be the income from student dues. This amounts to around $280,000 semesterly.
SGA urged students to use other means to raise money going forward, like going to the President’s office and Impact Center for funds for religious and Affinity activities and using the alum network to raise donations.
SGA has not responded to a request for comment.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that SGA encouraged students to petition to allow for designated donations to clubs. This is not true. SGA noted that they may be petitioning to allow for direct designated donations to the SGA budget to give clubs more funding. Student clubs are able to have designated donations. We apologize for this error.
