Emporia State Associated Student Government denied all budget increases for the 2024-25 fiscal year in the Fiscal Affair Committee’s annual line item meeting on Nov. 16. 

The line item meeting is held to establish the budget of fees paid to Line Item Organizations (LIOs) in the following fiscal year. LIOs may request changes to their budgets, which the Fiscal Affairs Committee grants or denies.

“We decided that the [projected] low enrollment rates would not allow for the collection of additional funds,” said Fiscal Affairs Chair Renata Ramirez.

The Fiscal Affairs Committee reviewed the projected enrollment numbers with the ESU administration to reach their decision. According to the Kansas Board of Regents enrollment survey, ESU enrollment is down 12.5% this academic year and ESU administration expects this decline to continue until 2025. 

The correlation between enrollment numbers and the line item budget lies in the student, or campus, activity fee that every enrolled student pays. The Senate Line Item Policy states that LIOs are paid directly by student activity fees. Ramirez explained that if ASG were to honor any budget increase, it could cause student activity fees to increase significantly. The maximum student activity fee is already well above $700.

Ramirez encourages LIOs to continue to request budget increases in subsequent years, as ESU is “working hard to improve enrollment rates for upcoming years.”