Keene student assembly cuts activity council budget, radio station staff contribute stipend funds to other organizations amid widespread slashes

Student organizations across campus are facing budget cuts that many expect to create significant hardships for their operations, including the cancellation of next year’s Spring Concert, which is organized annually by the Social Activities Council (SAC).

The budget cuts, which resulted from a gap between the total money requested by student organizations and the total money available through the student activity fee, were approved during a contentious KSC Student Assembly meeting on Tuesday, April 8 when the fiscal year 2026 budget for all registered student organizations as well as the KSC Office of Student Involvement was unanimously approved. The approval followed an open forum in which members of affected student organizations, including SAC, KSC Film Society, WKNH, Keene State Media Productions (KSMP) and The Equinox, as well as concerned students, raised opposition to the cuts and criticized the assembly for issues related to transparency.

Out of 41 student organization budgets, 36 received cuts. The Equinox, the American Choral Directors Association, the KSC Art Collective, Men’s Ice Hockey, the Pre-Law Society and the Women’s Rugby Club received no change to their budgets.

SAC’s budget was cut by $97,950 (a 52.28 percent cut), and it received $89,403 out of a requested $187,353. According to junior and SAC Administrative Coordinator Kerrin Shea, the cut threatens the 2026 Spring Concert.

“It’s really hard because we are an organization that schedules events based on a matrix given to us by student involvement, and we don’t get to choose to put all the funding we have towards the Spring Concert. We have to hold an event twice a month, or sometimes three times a month. This is a [$97,950] cut, and that is a lot of money,” said Shea.

“Right now, we’re looking to move forward with it. We pleaded our cases and I asked for information that the student government was not able to provide us with, which is very frustrating on our end,” said Shea.

Shea said details surrounding the student assembly’s rationale for cutting the concert from the budget are confusing. At the meeting, members of the student assembly claimed a lack of student participation in the annual concert was a factor, which Shea said she finds contestable.

“They’re saying they cut the concert because they didn’t see enough student interest, but they don’t have enough factual information to back that up. It’s really confusing to us when what they’re saying doesn’t match the numbers because last year we completely sold out. The year before we had about 470 tickets sold, and that was the year that we were coming out of [the COVID-19 pandemic],” said Shea.

“I don’t know about you, but 470 tickets to me seems very interested as a student body,” added Shea.

WKNH, KSC’s student-run radio station, donated $4,000 from its own organizational stipends to KSC Film Society and KSMP to help offset the financial burden and support fellow student organizations.

Organizational stipends, which were previously limited by a resolution passed by the student assembly in early March, were spared from cost-cutting measures following an outpouring of support from concerned parties.

E-board members of WKNH requested that part of their organization’s stipend allowance be redistributed to  KSC Film Society for its purchases of film screening rights and KSMP’s equipment budget, which was facilitated through a series of friendly amendments to the budget made by junior and Deputy Speaker of Student Assembly Amanda Rotigliano. WKNH had its e-board stipends restored to their original amounts, totaling $8,250, in the student assembly’s recommended budget for the club but reduced their stipend requests back down to $4,000 following the recent stipend resolution. Following a successful motion at Tuesday’s meeting by senior and Student Assembly Member-At-Large Jacob Favolise to repeal the stipend resolution, WKNH decided to redistribute $4,000 from the originally expected stipend amount, with the remaining $250 being set aside for  spending on other items in WKNH’s budget.

Prior to the redistribution, WKNH received an overall budget cut of $1,475 (9.09 percent), receiving $14,750 out of a requested $16,225. The organization received cuts to professional services ($500), food ($750), travel ($1,000), apparel ($1,500), prizes ($4,000) and equipment ($1,575). If the recommendation had not increased the stipend amount from what WKNH requested, the budget cut would have totaled $5,725, or 35.3 percent.

Rotigliano said the donation was offered by WKNH to help other clubs.

“After hearing all the organizations talk tonight, they decided the money would be better spent on some of the organizations that received budget cuts, so during the recess, both [sophomore and Student Assembly Treasurer Haley Hagler] and I went to talk with WKNH to make sure they understood what they would be doing, and they were in agreement that they wanted to give 4,000 from the 8,000 they were receiving [for stipends] to those other organizations,” said Rotigliano.

According to WKNH General Manager Ryan Rotigliano, the station wanted to support other organizations.

“We as a club had already adapted to the stipend change, and we ended up with extra money that we don’t need, and we’re going to give that to the clubs that need it the most,” said Ryan Rotigliano. “We gave $2,000 to the film society and $2,000 to KSC Media Productions, and the remaining $250 is going to offset some of the cuts that were made to our club.”

KSC Film Society received $4,300 (21.68 percent) in budget cuts, threatening its ability to obtain screening rights to movies shown at the Putnam Theater. The film society requested $19,835 and received $15,535.

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Senior and KSC Film Society President Ryan Severn said he is grateful for the donation from WKNH, but expressed concern that film screenings could still be impacted.

“The budget cuts are going to have a big effect on us. We are going to do the best that we can, but it’s severely impacted our ability to pay for movie rights, which is what we need in order to screen movies. We’re scavenging around and trying to see what we can do to make things work,” said Severn.

“With the generous gift from WKNH, which we’re incredibly grateful for, that has brought us to a point where there’s still a $1,900 gap in our movie rights budget from what we had planned,” said Severn.

Other concerns raised at the meeting surrounded a perceived lack of transparency surrounding the student assembly. According to the governing body’s bylaws, meeting agendas are required to be posted within 48 hours of an upcoming meeting. Meeting minutes are required to be posted within 48 hours following a past meeting. At the time of the Tuesday meeting, the student assembly had not posted agendas or minutes since March of 2024. Tuesday’s minutes have since been posted on the student government’s OwlNet page, along with backposts of the assembly’s minutes from the remainder of the spring 2024 semester.

A copy of the agenda, as well as documents containing the expected discrepancies between requested budget amounts and recommended budget amounts, was provided directly to a member of The Equinox. The Equinox forwarded copies of the information to several student organizations that would be impacted by the decision and were otherwise unaware of the budget cuts taking place.

Junior and Student Assembly Clerk Brandon Valley addressed the transparency concerns and claimed responsibility for issues and explained he was unaware that posting the documents was part of the job.

“I’m going to be more transparent and make sure I send things out publicly on OwlNet. That’s my fault, I didn’t know that was part of my position. I jumped into this position with not a lot of knowledge of student government. I apologize, but I really want to be as transparent as possible moving forward,” said Valley.

Other business discussed at the meeting included a budget presentation intended to explain the budget committee’s rationale behind each decision affecting student organizations.

Sophomore and Student Assembly Treasurer Haley Hagler, who serves as chair of the budget committee, gave the presentation. According to Hagler, many cuts were triggered by clubs not having previously used the amounts that were approved, as well as difficulties determining what clubs were requesting certain amounts for.

“When I originally sent out forms, I wrote in the email that we could use as much detail as possible,” said Hagler.

Hagler explained that more details make the process easier for the budget committee.

“For example, when we look at travel, we want to know things like what’s the cost per person, how many people are going on this trip, and how is this trip beneficial to your mission. Those are the kinds of key things we’re looking for,” said Hagler.

“When we look at how much money was used, our advisor has a sheet that keeps track of how much money was spent by that group previously, and we had to consider that because unfortunately not all clubs use all that money, and that’s money we can’t get back to put into other clubs and organizations after it’s been given,” added Hagler.

Other business included the official approval of the KSC Karate Club’s organization constitution, which passed with a unanimous vote.

•••

Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at rpacheco@kscequinox.com.

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