The Wichita State student government’s Student Fees Commission fully cut a total of six student fee entities in its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, which takes effect next school year. 

The student fees commission completed its deliberations Thursday afternoon. It will present the proposed budget for allocations to student services and scholarship funds to the Student Senate in a future Senate meeting, likely March 11. The Senate can make adjustments to the budget proposal before passing it. 

The student fee entities are split between education opportunity funds and student support services. EOFs fund various scholarships, while student support services are made up of entities that provide a service to students. 

Of the 33 student fee entities, seven received partial cuts in addition to the six that were fully cut. 

The six entities the commission cut in its proposal are scholarships for the debate team, Disability Support Services, esports scholarship, the Varsity Esports team, Student Outreach Services and the Office of Student Accommodations and Testing. Several of these entities also receive funding from donations or other sources, not just student government.

Those cuts equaled $221,193. 

The seven entities the commission proposed to partially cut are the first-generation student scholarship, non-traditional student scholarship, Student Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, HOPE services, campus recreation and Student Government Association office expenditures. 

Those cuts equaled $334,878.

Scholarship cuts

Both esports’ and debate’s scholarships were completely cut from the fiscal year 2027 budget proposal. The main reason commissioners gave for the decisions were that the scholarship requirements were too narrow.

Speaker of the Student Senate Matthew Phan motioned to allocate $0 of the $25,000 requested by the debate team. 

“I made this motion to allocate $0 for a couple reasons,” Phan said. “I believe that as we evaluate some of our EOF funds and our student support services funds, one thing that I’m looking at when I’m evaluating these different line items are the range that it has to support students and the impact it has on all of our students on campus as well.” 

Phan also pointed out that the scholarships didn’t go to a wide range of students. 

“This year we were only able to give a few scholarships,” debate team coach Phillip Samuels said during his presentation Tuesday. “… We gave scholarships to our (graduate teaching assistants), $2,000 for a semester for a total of $4,000 each, and we were able to give one of our students $2,000. Without this money and without an increase in this money, it is impossible for us to attract the types of people who can help us make this program successful.”

Samuels also mentioned in the hearing that he selects the scholarship recipients, not a committee. 

“I think there needs to be, in my mind, a more structured process on how it was selected, or a more separate process as opposed to just a couple coaches or assistant coaches helping out with that process as well,” Phan said.  

Phan’s motion passed with eight commissioners in favor, one against and one abstaining. 

Phan also motioned to allocate the esports scholarship $0 of its $25,000 request. 

“I think kind of similar to my thoughts on the debate team, I don’t think that I can justify allocating student fee dollars toward esports for their items,” Phan said. 

Phan said he felt the scholarship’s breadth was too narrow, and not enough students qualify to apply to the scholarship to make it worth funding. 

“You have to have at least some basis (of skill at esports) for the esports scholarship, I would say to a degree,” Phan said. 

With student body treasurer Luke Bumm speaking in affirmation and no one speaking in negation of Phan’s motion, it passed with six in favor, two against and two abstentions. 

How SGA bylaw changes affected student fee allocations

A change to the Student Government Association’s bylaws that was passed in February led to one educational opportunity fund being fully cut and another being funded with a stipulation. 

Student Senate Bill 68-144 states, “No scholarship applicant will be excluded from consideration, and no scholarship recipient will be chosen on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national origin, political affiliation, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a veteran.” 

The Student Fees Commission said they felt that the Disability Support Services EOF fund would be in violation of this bylaw and therefore opted not to allocate money to the fund. 

Similarly, the commission funded the non-traditional student scholarship $25,000, with a requirement that the scholarship change its application requirements to comply with SB-68-144. 

Cuts to sports teams

The student fees commission passed its proposed budget with no funding toward Wichita State’s varsity esports team and $121,144 less than Campus Recreation’s request of $1,134,834. 

The commission said the Campus Recreation cut stemmed from the amount of money going toward the shocker rowing team. 

Bumm made the motion for the cut to campus recreation. 

“I do think campus recreation is very frugal, they did not request an increase from last year, they are operating on very bare bones; however, with the commission’s previous cuts and sentiments towards the debate team and the esports team — willing to kind of defund those areas as they’re not suitable for student fee dollars — I think the same should go for the Shocker rowing team, which is housed under Campus Recreation,” Bumm said. 

Bumm said the makeup of his proposed cut was $57,263 for travel, $57,888 for the currently open assistant coaching position and $19,993.50 — half the rowing team’s equipment and maintenance budget. 

$19,993.50 was later rounded up to the nearest dollar in a separate motion. 

“All of these cuts are coming straight from the rowing team,” Bumm said. “Their scholarships are not affected as those are funded by outside sources.” 

The motion passed with eight in favor, zero against and two abstentions. 

The commission also cut varsity esports’ requested $95,000 to a proposed $0, motioned by Phan. 

“I don’t believe that student fee dollars should go to funding entities that I view more like student organizations,” Phan said. 

Phan cited the Model United Nations and Formula SAE teams that used to be student fee entities but were moved to student organizations, which are funded from a different pool of money. 

“I personally don’t see the benefit for the wider student body to fund the esports program, opposed to some of our other initiatives that we have,” Phan said. 

Phan said that the cut is in line with the other cuts the commission made to campus recreation, debate and the esports scholarship fund. 

“This is not bashing on their students or anything at all,” Phan said. “I believe we just have to be consistent in the way that we approach our student fee allocations for this as well.” 

Bumm agreed.

“I think that this is a great organization, but they truly do need to find other sources of revenue, as student fees — like we mentioned before from many of our other entities — just are not applicable to this,” Bumm said. 

Phan’s motion passed with nine in favor, zero against and one abstention. 

Commission proposes counseling services should be free to students

Underserved Commissioner Jia Wen Wang motioned to allocate $445,084 to the Counseling and Psychological Services — $103,000 less than its request — with the stipulation that the counseling services are free to students. 

Wang said that she had met with the Division of Student Affairs and that she didn’t want student fees to make up for the budget cuts happening to the university’s general use budget. 

“I’m a little disappointed that this even came up in (CAPS’) presentation, because I had specifically requested that students should not be responsible for GU cuts,” Wang said. 

Wang also pointed out that the $10 charge for a visit to CAPS is “off-putting” to students. 

“I don’t understand what really our funds are being used for if not for the counseling of students,” Wang said. “That should be free to students.” 

Commissioner Grace Naylor spoke in affirmation. 

“I believe that without offering these free counseling services to students, we are essentially charging them twice if we are funding their counselors and their salaries,” Naylor said. “I’m in affirmation of this stipulation specifically because I believe this would be great, especially for incoming freshmen.” 

The motion passed with nine in favor, zero against and one abstention. 

Entities that disagree with their proposed allocations are welcome to contest in public forum during Student Senate meetings, which are every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in RSC 233 and live streamed to SGA’s YouTube. 

The budget is planned to be presented at the March 11 Senate meeting, according to Bumm. The Senate has the authority to make alterations to the budget before voting on it. If the Senate does not approve the budget, the Student Fees Commission will have to draft a new budget and present it to the Senate again.