The Services & Activities Fee Committee is working to lessen WSU athletics’ reliance on S&A fees by cutting its allotment by 12.5 percent.

Athletics joined a number of other university groups in receiving a cut to its request from the committee earlier this month. Kleffner said the committee instructed athletics to ask for a one-time request instead of a normal S&A request.

The department made a one-time request of more than $754,000, but the S&A Fee Committee decided to give it $659,848, according to the request and budget documents.

This cut was an effort to encourage athletics to ask for less in S&A fees, as the group has asked for a one-time request from the committee for multiple years, Garrett Kalt, former ASWSU vice president and S&A committee member, said.

The committee wants athletics to wane off S&A fees in an effort to consolidate its funding requests since the group already asks for funds in multiple ways, including S&A fees, stadium fees and sports passes, Kalt said.

Matt Kleffner, senior associate director of athletics and chief financial officer, said the department will begin asking for less from students once it starts turning a profit.

He also said athletics attempted to consolidate its fund requests with an attempted referendum the ASWSU Senate declined to put on the ballot, which would have replaced athletics’ S&A fee with a $265 mandatory yearly sports pass.

Despite receiving less than it asked for, Kleffner said the department will not cut anything that benefits students.

“[Students are] an important part of what we do and what the university is here to do,” Kleffner said. “We take very seriously our role of giving students the opportunity to develop skills and opportunities … that they can’t get in a classroom or anywhere else.”

Like most other groups, the Center for Civic Engagement received a 2.5 percent cut to its S&A request. CCE provides opportunities for students to engage with the community through efforts such as community service and volunteering.

On top of this cut, the center also faces increasing project costs, hikes in minimum wages and cost of living, CCE Director Melanie Brown said.

The group asked for an increase of 3 percent to combat these rising costs, according to its request. While this request increase amounted to a little under $10,000 more than last year’s, the group only received about $800 more than requested last year, Brown said.

This decrease in funds may lead to service projects getting cut back, she said.

“The community projects that the CCE is known for … which is about 800 to 900 projects a year, that’s in real jeopardy right now,” Brown said.

In addition to possibly not funding as many events, the CCE does not have a program coordinator to lead these projects and a lack of funds to hire someone for the position, she said.

The Cougar Marching Band also received a 2.5 percent cut from its S&A request.

The group stated in its request that, while its expenses have gone up in recent years, its allocation from the S&A Fee Committee has not. It asked for more funds to replace and repair instruments, the addition of a new part-time position and to accommodate growth in the number of band members overall, according to its request.

The cut to their request was due to the band not spending its entire allocation from the previous year, according to a footnote on the S&A Fee Committee budget document. Another footnote stated the marching band would not be allowed to keep its carryforward from the current year and instructed it to request funds for instruments at a special budget meeting in the fall, if needed.

After the final deliberations earlier this month, Jordan Frost, former ASWSU president and S&A fee committee chair, said the committee knows the budget cuts can be difficult for groups, but the cost of education contributed to a need to cut fees.

“It’s going to be a hard decision for these departments to make cuts,” Frost said. “We can’t control tuition, but we can control fees, so it’s on us to make sure that we keep that at a responsible level for students.”