Highline’s falling enrollment is likely to reduce money for the S&A budget. 

The Service and Activities budget funds student activities from athletics to the Thunderword. The student committee decides how the funds get distributed. The S&A budget is funded by activity fees paid by all students. 

Highline’s enrollment is down about 16 percent from this time a year ago. Fall Quarter 2021 was lower than fall 2020. Low enrollment means fewer students are paying activity fees, leaving less money for the S&A Budget Committee to spend. 

“The committee anticipates the lower revenue from lower enrollment that will impact future budgets and will take caution in making their allocations this year to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the funds. The committee will need to be strategic in allocating funds for the upcoming 2022-2023 budget,” said Amy Bergstrom, interim director of the center of leadership and service. 

“Funds are allocated across 65 budget lines (although some budgets were paused this year). Each budget line has an assigned budget manager, who drafts a proposal to the S&A budget committee for review. The S&A committee will review and discuss each budget proposal and will together decide the allocation of funds across the budget lines,” Bergstrom said. 

Bergstrom said the committee doesn’t yet know how much less money it has to work with. 

“At this point, we don’t know how this year’s budget will impact distribution of the funds, as this will be what the committee will be deciding on and deliberating over the next few months,” she said. 

The budget has been shrinking for several years, as Highline’s enrollment has been declining since 2016. During 2020 – 2021, the S&A Budget was just under $3.3 million. For the current year, the budget was trimmed to $2.9 million. Activity fee collections also fell, from $159819 compared to last year’s revenue. 

Student organizations currently are submitting budget requests for the coming year.

“Budget proposals are currently being collected, and the committee will begin reviewing the proposals and deliberating starting in mid-February and will finalize and present their recommended budget in late May, to be approved by the Highline Board of Trustees in June,” she said.