Each year, a portion of student’s tuition fees are allocated to undergraduate student societies.
These funds, which typically constitute tens of thousands of dollars, are then apportioned to various initiatives for each society.
For the fifth time, The Ubyssey broke down the budgets of the largest student societies at UBC — the Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS), the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) and the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS).
How we did it
The Ubyssey requested access to the finalized budgets of the SUS, EUS, CUS and AUS. SUS, EUS and CUS provided its budgets and accompanying comments, but the AUS, UBC's largest undergraduate student constituency, did not provide either despite repeated inquiry.
How much are you paying in 2024/2025?
According to Ubyssey coverage, the CUS fee of $291.52 has been consistent since 2022/23 and remains the same in 2024/25.
The 2024/25 EUS fee of $50.87 increased from $48.39, while the SUS fee increased from $28.78 to $31.64.
The AUS student fee of $13.00 remained the same according to its projected budget.
First-week spending
At the beginning of each year, the student societies organize events for incoming first-year students to aid their transition into university life.
According to each of the constituencies’ respective finalized budgets, the CUS spent about $28,000, the same as last year, on its first-year orientation event, “The Spark.” The EUS’s E^0 week cost about $15,000 compared to $12,500 last year, and the SUS’s Science RXN cost almost $16,000, a decrease from last year’s $19,300.
Constituency surpluses for CUS and EUS
The CUS ended its fiscal year with just over $53,000 in surplus.
Over 65 per cent of student fees went towards CUS Services, a range of initiatives aimed at supporting students.
The three CUS services which received the most funding were its National Strategy Consulting Conference, (with just under 13 per cent of student fees) Grad Night (10.4 per cent) and Commerce Night (8 per cent).
In a statement to The Ubyssey, CUS VP Finance Davis Beauchamp said fund allocation is closely examined.
“I personally spent lots of time … during the budgeting season to evaluate all 37 of our service's actuals to see where we had been over-allocating so that we can move funds to … [where they would be used most] effectively,” Beauchamp said.
The EUS ended its fiscal year with about an $84,000 surplus.
EUS VP Finance Lucas Zafran said in a statement to The Ubyssey that the EUS is planning to use its surplus to upgrade spaces in the Engineering Student Centre.
“With small improvements made across the entire building, we’re slowly improving the home for all engineers,“ Zafran wrote.
A key expense for the EUS is its Spirit portfolio, which most notably includes Week E^0 and E-Week. Last year the portfolio exceeded $120,000, while this year it was around $100,000.
“Student attendance and demand [for E-week] is quite strong, driving the allocation of money to this portfolio,” Zafran said.
According to the publicly available AUS projected budget, the constituency expected to end the year with a surplus of around $2,500. The AUS did not reply to The Ubyssey to confirm.
Constituency deficit for SUS
SUS ended the year in a deficit of approximately $7,500.
While it had budgeted for a larger deficit, it managed to minimize it significantly by pulling about $40,000 from their 2022/23 year surplus.
SUS VP Finance Chloe Chan told The Ubyssey the SUS doesn’t want to get into a habit of dipping into the operational surplus.
“At a certain point, it'll be really hard to budget and tone down expectations if we overspend every single year.”
The SUS spent over $100,000 in costs for initiatives in its Finance Portfolio, with around $43,500 allocated to employee salaries and expenses.
The employee salary section exceeded its budget by about $15,000. This was due to the creation of a new Projects Commission group in 2023, an initiative focused on holding larger-scale events.
“Any [time an] organization decides to book the building, someone has to be there [and get paid] for that,” Chan said.
Looking forward
Moving into the 2024/25 year, the three constituencies hope to introduce new projects.
The CUS is set to launch a dashboard which would allow students to see metrics on all CUS services.
“Students [will be able] to see spending and metrics on all 37 services in real time, hopefully improving … [CUS] transparency,” said Beauchamp.
The EUS plans to introduce a new Mentorship Fund.
“We are really excited to be launching this fund this year and hope it will help students decide on their ideal specialization,” Zafran said.
This year, Chan said the SUS will focus on self-sustainability, setting aside $20,000 of its budget to ensure students have access to technical equipment they previously had to rent.
“[We are] really trying to use current students' money to give back to those very same current students,” Chan said.
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