AAS Budgetary Committee About Us / Contact Us

What Do We Do?

Each semester, the AAS receives money from the College to fund the day-to-day operations and activities of the student body. It is up to the Budgetary Committee (BC) to make recommendations for budgetary allocations to the Senate, while the Treasurer's Office Staff executes these payments on behalf of the AAS in a timely manner.

According to the AAS Constitution, funding cannot discriminate on the basis of any arbitrary criteria, must be accessible to all Amherst College students who wish to participate, must be made aware to all students through advertisements and publicity, and must be free of cost to attend. For exact language, please see Section IV, Part E of the AAS Constitution.

The AAS Treasurer oversees the overall operation of the budget of the AAS while ensuring that there is equitable funding for student groups so that Amherst College continues to have a vibrant student life.

The AAS Budget is composed of three main components:

• The Master General Fund: This portion of the budget is allocated ahead of time for the financial obligations of the AAS. We fund the Newspaper Readership Program in Valentine Dining Hall, subsidize ticket prices for Amherst students at the UMass Fine Arts Center, contribute to the popular TYPO (Take-Your-Professor-Out) Program, and more. According to the AAS Constitution, this portion of the budget must comprise of 40% +/- 10% of the entire budget.
• Club Budget Allocations: Club budgets are set before the beginning of the semester, to ensure that clubs with a proven track record of event success and activity have immediate access to funding once the semester begins. To learn more about club budgets and the club recognition process, please refer to the FAQs. According to the AAS Constitution, this portion of the budget must comprise of 40% +/- 10% of the entire budget.
• Discretionary Fund: Each week, the BC meets to distribute these available funds to clubs that either do not have a club budget, clubs with a club budget that require extra funding, and student groups that wish to organize an activity on campus. The BC meets on Thursday nights in Paino Lecture Hall in Beneski at 7:30 pm to have their weekly Discretionary Fund meeting and again on Monday night at 8:00 pm in Cole Assembly Room (the Red Room) in Converse Hall, right before the Senate meeting, to hear last-minute emergency fund requests. Anyone with funding proposals can come! According to the AAS Constitution, this portion of the budget must comprise 20% +/- 10% of the entire budget. To view the most recent Discretionary Fund budget, please click here.

The Budgetary Committee, composed of eight Senators and two At-Large Members, reviews club budgets prior to the start of the semester and weekly Discretionary Fund requests. After a club or student group requests money, the BC will make a recommendation to the Senate to allocate those funds during the Monday night Senate meeting after the BC meeting.

Once an allocation is approved by the Senate, a club is free to spend the money that is allocated to them. The Office Staff is very involved in this process to ensure that payments are made and executed in a timely manner. For more information on spending policies, guidelines, allocations, and payments, please review our Funding Policies.

Who Are We?

Each club with a club budget is assigned to a Budgetary Committee representative. If you are a club leader, click here to find your representative. Each BC member is familiar with our funding guidelines and policies and will be able to help you out with funding concerns. Any questions about payment can be directed to budgetary@amherst.edu, and a member of the Treasurer's Office will help you out.

Why Is This Important?

For such a small college, Amherst has a very active student life, with over 140 student groups and organizations on campus. The AAS is a primary funding source for the activities that occur on campus, but we are not the only one. Although we encourage students to come to BC meetings to make Discretionary requests and learn more about the funding process, we also encourage students to seek alternate sources of funding where appropriate, to ensure that the AAS can fairly and equitably distribute funding to all groups who want it.