Since ASWC released a preliminary budget on Sunday, there has been a lot of discussion on campus about the budgeting process. Many readers have commented on the information we’ve provided detailing cuts in the yearbook and other campus organizations, asking questions about how ASWC decides budgeting and why some groups had their funding cut significantly from what they were allocated this year.

Currently, several of our reporters and editors are teaming up to create a series of infographics and text better explaining the budgeting process and answering some of the questions that have been raised. We will have comprehensive data online by Thursday morning, as well as an article with updates on budget appeals and yearbook funding.

Based on the comments we’ve received on our site, the conversations our editors have had with fellow students and the comments discussing budgeting on whitmanencounters.com, our coverage will be focused on addressing the following questions:

1. Where did all the money go for this year, and why was it allocated the way it was?

2. What is the Lifecycle Fund, and why did it need a significant chunk of this year’s budget?

3. Which clubs have been granted rollover funding for next year from unused portions of their budgets from this year?

4. What is the travel and student development fund, and how is it funded? What has it been used for in the past few years, and which clubs, groups or organizations have benefitted the most from funding?

5. What is the context for yearbook funding? How much money have they received in the past, what is it spent on, and what has been requested for next year?

6. What does the budgeting process look like? Where does it stand now, and what decisions have not been made yet?

We hope that by providing data and context to answer these questions, we can help clarify the budgeting process for the student body and organize the large amount of data we’ve received from ASWC in a useful way. If you have other issues you’d like us to address or data you’d like us to track down, feel free to comment or drop us a line at [email protected].