The Student Bursar’s Office allocated a total of $674,877.38 amongst fully-funded organizations, Grant Clubs, Club Sports, Guaranteed Percentage Events, Class Councils, and House Councils for the 2024-25 school year. This is compared to a total of $932,812.49 for the 2023-24 school year, with both sums excluding the amount pulled for the Emergency Funding Pool, Recreation Grant, Conference Award Fund, and stipends for the College Government and Bursar’s Office.

The Wellesley Review is one of the many clubs who received a big drop in funding, with only $648.81 this year compared to last year’s $1,743.48.  

“It’s so difficult to decide what's worth spending money on, and I feel like everyone fights about money … I feel like it is something that's going to cause strife between management and/or it has the potential to cause strife between management and the club,” ​​Co-President of The Wellesley Review Emma McNulty ’26 said.

The Wellesley Review is not alone in this. Several clubs and organization leaders were left frustrated when their final approved funding for the 2024-25 school year was much less than anticipated. 

Members of the Bursar’s Office understand such sentiments, but they explain that the stark decrease occurred not because of an intentional funding cut but because the Bursar’s Office gave student organizations an unusually large amount of funding last year.

Consequence of no Bursar last year

The Bursar heads the Bursar’s Office and acts as a liaison between Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC), College Government (CG) Cabinet, and the administration’s Budgetary Advisory committee. The role and the Bursar's Office is to inform each group on college-wide financial issues, the lack of a Bursar last year caused a deficit in funding expertise.

“Last year, the [Bursar’s] Office did not know how to properly distribute the funds because there was no Student Bursar, no memory of funding distribution, and because we lost the Bursar so quickly ... Orgs were asking ‘what's our budgets’ [so] members of the Office — Penelope and I were not involved in that decision I should clarify — made the decision to take out of Contingency and just give everyone what they asked,” Deane said. 

Contingency is the pool of leftover money at the end of a year. Members of the Office refer to Contingency as a sort of bank to pull money from in emergency situations. Last year, the Office acted out of the ordinary, pulling about $300,000 out of Contingency to grant organizations the amount of funding they requested. 

Excluding the 2023-24 school year, the average Student Activity Fund from 2017-18 to 2024-25 is $730,468.85. Last year’s Student Activity Fund was $999,312.49.

Notably, SOFC decides on which organizations receive how much money, and the Bursar’s Office only allocates the money.

“None of the normal formulas or distribution policies that we have in order to distribute the funds fairly and appropriately were able to be executed last year, so the budgets that people got last year were very, very abnormal,” Deane said.

Office pulls from Contingency again for 2024-25 school year

This year, the administration lowered the student activity fee, which each student pays in their tuition, from $320 to $296. The Board of Trustees approved this decision as part of the College’s annual budget process.

“The Student Activity Fee was reduced because of significant carryover in that budget line. At the end of last year, SOFC had approximately $530,000 in unspent funds. When a department has unspent funds, the College’s standard practice is to moderate further budget increases,” said Director of Media Relations Stacey Schmeidel. 

Since there was no Bursar serving as immediate contact last year, the Office was unable to explain to the administration the circumstances — mainly residual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic where no physical events took space, such as a fewer number of clubs and events — that led to unspent funds last year.

“In a normal year, [the Office] gets to at least be a part of those conversations or influence them a little bit, and we did not have that specific voice last year,” Head Bookkeeper Penelope Gordon ’25 said.

Members of the Office expressed their sympathy in how organizations expected to receive more funding than they did.

“I really feel sad for the orgs because it’s not any student’s fault [that orgs received less funding this year]. It’s an administrative level thing that students do not have control over,” said Bookkeeper Ruth Jaiyeola ’27.

Together with the drop of enrolled students, it appeared that the Student Activity Fund would be significantly lower. However, the Office chose to once again pull money from contingency to return the Fund to a standard amount.

“They did decrease the Student Activity Fee, yes, however that has not affected the overall organization budgets, at least for this year, because we’ve artificially inflated it with Contingency money to get it up to that $800,000,” Deane said.

The Bursar’s Office was able to do so due to a large amount of money being reverted into Contingency due to COVID-19. Between last year and this year, however, the Office has distributed this surplus sum, leaving there “less wiggle room to borrow” for future years.

As such, the Bursar’s Office is working with the administration to “sustain a healthy amount of Student Activity Funding” for future years.

“I don't want to promise something, but we definitely, on our end, are looking to increase the Student Activity Fee. We're doing all this data to see what a healthy amount [is],” Deane said.

Nonetheless, the Bursar’s Office stresses that organizations should not apply for more than needed to prevent unspent money.

“When orgs apply for a lot of money and then don't use all that, that negatively impacts the student activity fee because admin sees how much money is reverted, and they're like, ‘oh, so we don't need this amount of money,’ which might not be true. Other orgs could use that money,” Deane said.

What impacts funding distribution?

The Office follows a dollar-per-student model, where it considers how many people will attend each event and how much money per student the event will cost. 

“We prioritize those events that are cheaper per student, for example, huge events that benefit a lot of students. [This is] because that means the Student Activity Fee that they’re paying, they’re benefiting from. Those events get funded before more expensive events,” Deane said.

This year, the Office is strict in prioritizing event money and funding that is necessary for an organization to run (coaches, sports equipment, etc.) over food money. 

“A lot of the cuts that were made if organizations got their approved budgets cut was in food … we have in our Constitution that we can only fund 35% of the total budget toward food,” Deane said.

However, many organizations, particularly cultural organizations, are heavily impacted by funding cuts for food. Co-President of the Wellesley Taiwanese Cultural Organization (TCO) Michelle Lee ’25 expressed that funding is tight between event and food money. 

“It’s really difficult, almost impossible, to use event money for food money … As a cultural org, food is really important to us,” Lee said.

Despite its consequences, the funding hierarchy answers a circulating question of why some organizations receive more funding than others. When asked why the Nordic Ski Team, for example, received a large sum of money in the past few years, Deane explained that Club sports must require more funding to legally exist: these teams must attend a certain number of races or tournaments in order to be recognized by their National Governing Body, i.e. USA Nordic. 

“It’s a lot [of money], but …we actively worked with Physical Education, Recreation, & Athletics (PERA) last year to cut Club Sports to the bare minimum that they can in order to function … Club sports collectively cannot take more than 17% of the Student Activity Fund,” Deane said.

SOFC procedures likely to change in forthcoming years

The Wellesley News obtained data from the Bursar’s Office that for the 2024-25 school year, organizations applied for a total of 116 more events than they did last year. Organizations are also more active, hosting more events, as the College bounces back from the pandemic. 

“Even taking inflation into account, there's still an increase in how much orgs want to do. There have also been significant changes within the past year … people are hiring different workers … before the pandemic [CG Cabinet] did not have stipends. The stipends that come out of the student activity,” she said.

While numbers continue to fluctuate, members of the Office remind the student body that their current process for fund distribution has only been in place since the 2019-20 year. As such, SOFC, the Bursar’s Office, and CG Cabinet is looking to see how they can change the policy process to “fairly and appropriately” distribute funds.

Ultimately, Deane sees the Bursar’s Office as an underutilized resource and encourages students who have questions about the funding distribution process to visit the Bursar’s Office when she or Penelope hold Office Hours. 

“Our entire job is to help student organizations get as much money as they need, and to help them to spend that money in the correct way … There have been times where people have negative ideas of the Bursar’s Office because of decisions we don’t make, and that is something we have been working on: to rebuild community ties,” Gordon said.

**Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that the total allocated by SOFC for the 2024-25 school year was $681,902.70, this number represents the amount allocated only for organizations in the 2024-25 school year, the total allocation was $790,000.00.

Christina Ding contributed to reporting.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Valida Pau, Sazma Sarwar, Galeta Sandercock

I sat down to speak with Din this last week, and from the beginning of the conversation, it was clear that she is passionate about student involvement. Din arrived at Wellesley this past summer after an already-extensive career in student affairs in higher education. She had previously worked at the Asian-American Center at Northeastern University, residential life at various colleges, Director of Intercultural Affairs at Stonehill college, and has earned a Masters and PhD in higher education from University of Vermont and UMass Boston, respectively. She says that she has “devoted pretty much most of [her] career to serving historically oppressed communities,” and that she has always made that a priority in her previous positions. 

Din also remarks that, as a Filipina woman, she has been focused on anti-colonial narratives, and how identities, power, privilege, and oppression have been embedded in systems and institutions. Being able to work with that relationship, especially at small liberal arts institutions, has really made a difference to Din. She thinks that relationships with students at small institutions tend to feel more personal, and that she has been able to positively engage with more students. She also felt strongly that she would end up at a historically women’s college; Din says that went to a private all-women’s high school, and as she said, “some of my favorite people in the world are fiery women.”

Din believes  what comes out of the Office of Student Involvement should always be student-focused. She has already been working to involve herself in the Wellesley community—while she hasn’t had a lot of time to attend programs or get to know organizations, she is already adding events to her calendar. She says she’s trying to be intentional about what and who she shows up for, because showing up matters to students. She remarks, “I need to just make sure that I’m learning and listening, because you are all the experts of your experience here, not me.” Din has been reaching out to faculty and staff that especially work with marginalized communities on campus, trying to make sure she can hear a variety of voices. “How do students know that Student Involvement cares?” she asks. “I want to be able to make sure that students know that they can reach out to me if and when they need support.” She wants students to know that she brings a unique lens of intercultural awareness to the role too, and that she is open to all perspectives and experiences. 

Din’s model also seems to be that of learning and listening. When asked about her plans for students in the future, she said, “I think a huge part of my first year is I need to learn and listen and hear stories, the concerns, the challenges, the joys.” And in regards to struggles orgs may face with recognition, Din is prepared to listen to what students have to say. She says that she’s a problem solver at heart, and that her hope is that any barriers that exist for organizations can be addressed in the appropriate ways. She says, “if I’m noticing that there’s a specific policy or a procedure or some a process that seems to be like a barrier for students or student orgs, those are things that I like kind of latch on to, and…I’m so new, but I’m going to pay attention to it, because it seems like it’s an issue, right?” She explains that she not only wants to listen and learn from students, but also advocate for them in administrative settings. Din says every student deserves a transformable experience, and she can understand the frustration without being recognized. 

When asked about the issues with orgs’ funding, Din says that she heard about issues surrounding the student bursar and funding from last year. She was pleased to learn that they were now getting paid more equitably as part of the Cabinet for Student Government, but she’s also focused on making sure they are consistently heard and affirmed. And in regards to potentially replacing the Bursar with a more administrative position, Din said that it would depend on what students tell her and advocate for throughout the semester. “I’ve heard from student orgs too, and so I feel for them deeply, because I went to college too, and it’s just hard to want to do what you want to do when the resourcing is very limited,” Din said.

Overall, Dr. Kristine Din is excited for her new position and possibilities on campus. She says the part that she loves most is the students: their input, their excitement, and their openness. She says, “It is true that…I am in higher ed, in student affairs because of students and the belief that educators had in me, in my former college life, and so I tried to be that for students that I’ve worked with for a number of years now.” She remarks that the people here feel authentic and real, and it makes her all the more connected with her new role. “The people that I’ve met and been able to engage with so far are really authentic in their care for the campus community,” she concludes. 

Image credit: stonehill.edu

Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn

“What’s interesting about SAAFE is that it actually became dormant pre-pandemic,” Eliza Poffenburger ’23, president of SAAFE said. “[As a super senior,] my first year at Wellesley was the last full year of SAAFE activities … My hope is to bring my institutional knowledge [to new members].”

While Poffenburger acknowledges the moldability of SAAFE, she still wants to continue some of the traditions she remembers from her first semester on campus, such as uplifting survivors of assault and having their signature events, such as Take Back the Night.

“[Take Back the Night] happens in April, which is sexual violence awareness month,” Poffenburger said. “It’s a space organized by SAAFE for survivors of sexual violence to come and be in community with one another … My goal is to really put survivors first.”

Poffenburger hopes that, through SAAFE, the Wellesley community will have more access to resources to help combat sexual violence. Furthermore, a primary focus of SAAFE this year is to promote healthy relationships.

“Rather [than] just using the lens of, ‘Hey, don’t assault people,’ which is historically not always a great way of going about it, a lot of the focus is instead recognizing healthy and unhealthy patterns in relationships and friendships in your everyday life … in order to prevent violence, both sexual and domestic,” Phia Nachmanoff ’25, SAAFE’s treasurer, said.

This shift into spreading awareness on generally healthy behavior patterns goes alongside their part of the “wellness network” of peer health educators for the Office of Student Wellness.

“I think there’s been a lot more partnership there, of viewing [relationship health] as an essential part of wellness,” Nachmanoff said.

To spread awareness, SAAFE is hoping to collaborate with other peer health educators and student organizations on campus. Additionally, Nachmanoff explains that one of their projects this semester includes compiling available resources into a single location, such as a Linktree. They also are particularly interested in spreading awareness of the nuanced and complicated dynamics that can happen during the many events on-campus such as pre-games and parties.

“When you’re talking to someone at a party, especially in a flirtatious way, things like age differences [and] class year differences [matter],” they explained. “[Olin is] really wonderful about promoting a healthy culture around consent and substance use, and how to be aware, especially in party environments [which we can model on].”

Through posters and infographics, SAAFE hopes to broaden their cultural impact at the College while spreading awareness and inviting prospective members to join the organization and help make an impact on the overall safety for students.

“I am really excited about the future of SAAFE because we do have a lot of really great foundation[s] to build on, and it’s really exciting to think about the new directions that we can take our org[anization],” Poffenburger said.

“I think that this org will hopefully be a great place where there’s no competitiveness and everyone wants each other to succeed,” she said. “That means helping someone out with their resume and not being afraid that if their resume’s better than yours then maybe they’ll get the job you want … the main goal is just to create a space where people feel okay and feel empowered to speak about their successes, talk about their failures [and] learn amongst their peers.”

In addition to these overarching goals, the organization hopes to offer a variety of events for their members. Their goal is to have at least one event every other week, such as lectures, panels, workshops and socials focused on a range of industries and topics. Outside of the Wellesley-chapter- specific events, one of the benefits The Women’s Network offers is the opportunity to attend events from other chapters.

“[The Women’s Network] really just exposes you to such a large variety of events because you have all of our events … [and] you have national events which are hosted by the CEO once or twice a month, and then you have dozens of events from the 100 plus chapters around the country, which you’re always welcome to join,” DeAgazio said.

The chapter also clearly states that it is not for specific majors or fields major types. They anticipate having events for all academic interests, from biochemistry to English. Additionally, they hope to branch out of academics entirely and into other potential passions.

“Nothing is mandatory, because we understand you want to go to things that interest you. It doesn’t even have to be an academic event, if we have a thing about sewing or something, we just want to have interest,” Bijon Anderson ’25, co-vice president of DEI for the chapter, said.

Both Anderson and DeAgazio stressed that it was important that all non-man identifying students feel welcome and accepted in the organization. DeAgazio specifically notes the importance of the organization providing an experience and community.

“We want it to be a fulfilling experience and an experience that’s worth your time,” she said. “We just hope to make sure that we are a place where you can learn and have fun, grow as a professional and always feel welcome.”

As a newly constituted chapter, the organization has a plethora of potential to grow and expand into whatever the members want.

“[The Women’s Network] is for everyone and I would love for them to join,” Anderson said. “If you have suggestions [or] ideas, we want them. Since this is a new thing on campus, we definitely want to hear everyone’s input because that’s very important to us.”

“I think the idea that returning back to normal was good for everyone in the first place is kind of a complicated and in some ways an exclusionary viewpoint, because … normal never worked for disabled people,” Fazya Jaleel ’24, current SAW president, said.

A follow-up to the initial announcement of the policy changes, Dean Horton stated that while the pandemic was not over, “As a community we need to move forward and resume more of our pre-pandemic life,” especially in regards to academics. This reinforced the college’s messaging surrounding masking as a personal choice, no longer a matter of public safety, as part of a broader initiative to return to “normal operations” and “re-establish academic expectations.”

“It’s not an either/or. It’s not flexibility and accommodation for everyone, or academic excellence,” Esmé Krummel ’25, SAW’s academic chair, said. “It’s possible to have both at once, and having both at once is gonna bring a happier, healthier, mentally more stable … [state for] everyone.”

The wide-spread structural shift to virtual or hybrid-based schooling during the past two years is proof that this accommodation is not only possible, but relatively simple to implement and maintain. Although teachers and students alike have expressed frustration with the Zoom experience, the forcible transition away from long-held teaching norms has provided the opportunity for accessibility-forward thinking that considers how best to accommodate each student’s needs, disabled or not, ultimately producing a learning environment that serves everyone. 

To better accommodate its members, SAW has additionally enacted some internal changes. They are in the process of developing a COVID-19 testing form as a way to get an idea of the number of active cases on campus. To help ensure its members ability to participate in and attend meetings, masks are now required at all SAW events, in addition to getting tested 48 hours beforehand and the meetings themselves will remain hybrid. SAW has also appointed a tech chair and an access chair to ensure that those attending virtually have the ability to participate as fully as those in-person. 

“Especially with the pandemic, and with everything kind of going on, I think it’s important to create community first and foremost, and really make it so that disabled people on campus can have the space to process…with each other, and also be in community and advocate with each other,” Jaleel said.

Outside of SAW, students are still running into barriers surrounding adequate accommodation. Furthering this difficulty is the fact that the only accommodations officially recognized are those granted by ADR, meaning students who are unable to get the required neuropsych testing for medical or financial reasons are unable to receive accommodations. However, flexibility is granted when non-disabled students stand to gain, such as the policy allowing virtual classes only in the case of an outside speaker.

“It’s incredibly harmful and incredibly pervasive in this ableist society of ours, that certain people want to go back to not having certain things unless they’re beneficial for the able-bodied people,” Jaleel said. 

Jaleel later noted that ableism surrounding COVID-19 does not exist in isolation of societal views of disabled people. Krummel expanded on this point.

“Dehumanization and alienation of people with disabilities is a common type of ableism that comes up, and … making things COVID-wise, accessible to most people, but not accessible to people with disabilities, is a continuation of our societal dehumanization and alienation of people with disabilities, chronic illnesses and immunocompromisation,” Krummel said.

“We were going to do ‘Mulan’ [my] sophomore year,” Anna Hu ’22, co-president for Wushu, said. “We got pretty far into [planning the event], and then we couldn’t do it … This year, we brought it back but made some changes.”

This retelling is a combination of multiple versions of the story, including the animated and live-action Disney versions, to portray more characters and eventually have Mulan fall in love with a witch. The show had guest performances by the College’s Freestyle and Shotokan Karate, the Wellesley Asian Dancer Organization, Brown Lion Dance and MIT Spinning Arts.

One of the struggles with the event was the long period of time without consistent in-person practices. This year, Wushu has had more members but less experienced performers.

“The seniors are the only ones left who know how to do all these weapons and choreo,” Wushu Co-President Eugenia Zhang ’22 said. “We are basically timing ourselves to kind of, you know, teach all these weapons, create choreo and manage the show ourselves and kind of teach the underclassmen, ‘this is how you do it.’”

While the difference in experience adds some difficulty to directing a show, Hu noted that the underclassmen and new members also added a lot to the planning experience.

“It’s been really nice to see the younger members sort of step into leadership roles because the way we plan the shows is through a bunch of different committees,” she said. “We have a lot of younger members sticking up to lead those committees and they’re doing a great job.”

As seniors, both Hu and Zhang find it fitting to have their final show be “Reflections,” where they can share the culmination of their year’s work in the organization.

“It’s kind of like coming full circle that we [had a show] in first-year and now we [had a show in our] fourth year,” Zhang said. “It’s just a nice way to have our own show to display what we’ve been working on the entire year.”

WFL is fairly new to campus; on Nov. 23, 2020, the group’s Facebook page announced their approval to be an official Wellesley College student organization, stating, “We are so proud to be a part of a community that welcomes and embraces a diversity of perspectives.” 

In the past, the org has hosted guest speakers like Abigail Young, who is the New English regional coordinator of students for life of America and has welcomed anyone to attend meetings or join the organization itself, regardless of their stance on abortion. Both presidents, Faodice Bishaze ’23 and Lizzie Um ’23, declined to be interviewed for the article, citing the organization’s recent creation. Many members of the Wellesley community, however, do not view the organization as welcoming. Sophia Meier ’22, one of the first people to comment on the WFL Sept. 10 post, explained how she felt when she first heard about the group’s existence in Fall 2020. 

“I was … shocked and so surprised that we had a group like that on this campus, because everyone that I had ever encountered here had been vehemently pro-abortion,” Meier said. 

Similarly, fellow student and commenter Linh Dieu ’25 reacted with “disheartened” feelings. While Dieu respected the org’s “open[ness] to conversation,” she identified an area of concern.

“I fear that the org’s presence on campus, especially bringing in speakers for their seminars, … could trigger some members of our community if they have had … personal experiences with abortions — even if these meetings are on an opt-in basis,” Dieu said.

Alexandra Brooks ’23, another commenter who identified this concern, described feeling “outrage” when she saw the group’s Facebook post.

“The fact that [WFL] is allowed to exist on this campus is incredibly harmful … to a lot of Wellesley students … because [WFL]’s whole purpose as an org, same with the pro-life movement, is to control and police other people’s bodies, regardless of how many floral graphic designs you make,” Brooks said. 

The debate surrounding abortion has been controversial in American politics since the Supreme Court handed down their landmark decision for Roe v. Wade in 1973. 

Taken from the Quickening Doctrine, abortion was a common and completely legal practice at any time before fetal movement is felt by the pregnant person. Any abortions performed after this period, (known as “the quickening”) were merely considered misdemeanors. 

Most abortions and other pregnancy-related medical practices were performed by midwives, effectively removing (male) doctors from the field altogether. In an attempt to obtain absolute authority in the medicinal field over competing healers, physicians began lobbying for anti-abortion laws, which were enacted in every single state by the year 1900. 

The anti-abortion movement quickly garnered attention by small groups of Catholics, but with the law on their side, there wasn’t much incentive left to attract newcomers to the crusade. 

Although the anti-abortion movement wasn’t founded on religious ideology, it quickly became synonymous with more fundamentalist sects of Christianity. The aftermath of Roe v. Wade solidified this connection, as the faces of the newly rebranded pro-life movement were those of Christian leaders, including the Catholic pope following the decision, Pope John Paul II. 

Today, the debate continues to be drawn along religious lines, which as Meier said, “toys this line of religious freedom … There are many religions where abortion is an acceptable thing.”

Even in light of such a polarizing issue, every commenter emphasized their commitment to respecting the beliefs of everyone in the community. But at the end of the day they still felt the need to speak out, as Dieu explained, she feels she must persist in her response to the movement.

“I must continue to advocate for my rights as a human being, as a person who relies on reproductive healthcare, as a person who could get pregnant, and as a person who may need such services in the future … not only for me, but for the people I care about and those around me,” Dieu said.

Correction 11/4/21: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Grace Park ’24 was the co-president of Wellesley for Life, along with Lizzie Um ’23. Park is not the co-president but the publicity chair.