Revised 2018-2019 CSU Budget
To improve financial planning and transparency, the CSU has implemented a budget revision process at the mid-point of each academic year. This process is intensive but valuable, allowing the CSU to better present to students how spending is being prioritized, and to make changes to the budget plan where needed.
The initial 2018-2019 budget and its February revision are the CSU’s most transparent budgets in years. Not only are financial documents now made easily-accessible on the CSU website, but the revised budget also includes significantly more information about individual CSU departments, salaries, and results over multiple years. The document has both short summaries in addition to detailed information, so expertise in finance is not required to understand it.
This year’s revised budget shows a strong financial position for the CSU. The operations surplus has grown from a thin $5,183 to a robust $65,874—this is the result of efficiencies being found rather than cutting services to students. The Advocacy and Clubs departments have been in deficits due to decreases in their fee levies as student demand rose, however, the new fee structure approved in the January 2019 by-election means that these structural deficits will be resolved without increasing student fees or cutting services to students.
We believe strongly in the services, events, and campaigns that Concordia undergraduate students offer through their union, and we think it’s important to make the union as transparent and accessible as we can.
If you have comments, questions, or suggestions about the CSU’s budget, please contact John Hutton, CSU Finance Coordinator, at finance@csu.qc.ca.
You can download the revised 2018-2019 CSU Budget here.