The Associated Students of Skyline College reported a Club Council budget of only $2,004 at their April 16 meeting, causing some concern among students, clubs, and the ASSC officers themselves.

In a previous meeting on March 25, SOCC had made an announcement of having only $1,092 in funds. “The thousand dollars we said we had last meeting was an estimation of money,” ASSC Vice President Pricsilla Sanchez said. “Now with the updated budget, it gave SOCC the two thousand we have now.”

The reason for the lack of SOCC funds is a rise in clubs and on-campus activities, and doesn’t reflect the overall budget, according ASSC Adviser Amory Cariadus. “What was originally planned in the budget was actually the norm of what it’s been for the past few years,” Cariadus said. “The changes have come as a result of one, there being more clubs active on campus, and there being more requests for funds. That’s why it seems like, in some people’s eyes there seems to be less money in the account, which there really isn’t.”

The official budget numbers and the nature of the funding requests being granted remain a mystery. As of April 9, The ASSC has not published minutes, agendas, budgets, or other supplementary information for any of their 2014 weekly meetings.

This makes ASSC Commissioner of Finance Andrea Garcia the only person qualified to speak on the budget numbers.

“Without having Andrea here to actually look at the new numbers I can’t say for sure,” Cariadus said about the state of the updated budget. Cariadus’ sentiment echoed that of her fellow adviser John Saenz, as well as many ASSC student officers, who also deferred to Garcia. Garcia could not be reached for comment.

The unsuspected stress on the SOCC budget is being handled by a reallocation of funds from other sections of the ASSC budget.

“ASSC has been able to take funds that they’ve designated forother areas and relocated them for clubs and so there’s not really a concern,” Cariadus said.

But exactly where those funds will come from is unknown to Cariadus and to ASSC Vice-President Priscilla Sanchez.

“At the moment I do not know (where the funds will come from) but there is going to be rearrangements so that clubs can get the funds they need to have activities on campus,” Sanchez said. “It’s not that we don’t have the funds, it’s just that the money is going away faster. So that’s why we’re a little bit freaking out, but we have the money to fund all the clubs.”

The clubs themselves are getting by on what the SOCC can provide, but they are feeling the competition from the growing field of campus organizations which is up to 45 this year, a noticeable increase from last year when clubs numbered in the high 30s.

“I feel like there’s a good amount of access (to funds) but it’s hard because there are so many clubs,” said Jaimelynn Alvarez, Vice-President of Operations for Phi Theta Kappa. “A lot of them are startups and they need extra help through SOCC funding but there are a lot of other clubs that are well-established, like model UN or Phi Theta Kappa, who are traveling to conventions … those kinds of things are really expensive no matterhow much you fundraise.”

SOCC offers up to $500 per semester to each club before the club has to file an “outside request” for additional funding, but knowing how many clubs will be asking for this allowance will be the key to keeping the budget balanced in the future.

“It’s just a matter of estimating how many clubs there are going to be next year,” Sanchez said.

In the meantime the ASSC is looking for the silver lining. “The clubs are more engaged, more activities are happening on campus, we have more clubs,” Cariadus said. “So it’s actually a good thing that we need more money to give to clubs.”

Update: this article has been replaced with the newest version available. 3:15 p.m. 4/21/2014
Update: this article was updated to fix formatting issues. 10:58 .p.m. 4/23/2014.