On March 19, members of University Students’ Council voted unanimously to pass the 2015–16 University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union budget, the first to fall to the black since the 2006–07 year.

This year’s operating budget will run a surplus of $108,717 including depreciation. USSU vice-president operations and finance Elias Nelson was responsible for preparing the historic budget.

Nelson attributes the surplus to the completion of the Place Riel renovation.

“This is pretty special,” Nelson said at the March 12 students’ council meeting. “When the Place Riel renovations happened, the operating side took a hit. Our administrators said that we would have a balanced budget within five years and, lo and behold, this is the fifth year and we have one.”

The capital budget ran a deficit of $86,547. However, Nelson explained this is simply the nature of capital budgets.

“A capital budget allows you to purchase capital instead of accounting for it on your operating budget, which is problematic,” Nelson said.

In 2014–15 the USSU ran deficit budgets for operations and capital to the order of $87,757 and $63,884, respectively.

Student fees continue to bear the brunt of USSU funding needs. The budget expects $1,223,459 in student fees, an increase from last year’s line of $1,170,031.

Excluding asset depreciation costs, the USSU budget is running a surplus of $226,782. Depreciation is the decline in value of assets over time due to use.

Lower Place Riel continues to be a financial powerhouse, with collected rent from tenants amounting to $343,562 over 2014–15.

“Facilities is a really big line, a net contributor,” said Nelson. “It’s a real bread winner on our budget.”

The USSU centres saw virtually no changes to operations funding. The Information Centre continues to run a positive balance due to U-Pass payments and revenue from table rentals.

XL Print and Design saw a slight decrease in profit, from $60,699 to $52,475. Although XL’s business increased substantially, this was offset by the hiring of full-time staff.

Louis’ experienced a complete turnaround in profits, from running a deficit of $76,515 last year to a projected surplus of comparable value, $77,774, in 2015–16. Nelson said this is likely due to the success of Louis’ Loft.

The student governance line is projecting a deficit of $226,141. This line covers costs associated with the USC, the USSU executive and elections.

Also included in the budget is a $5,000 grant towards the creation of Campus Legal Services, a student advocacy group not unlike the Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon’s Inner City (CLASSIC). The amendment was proposed by member of student council for the College of Law Taylor Andreas during the March 12 council meeting.

“It’s kind of a gap in the services that we offer to students,” said Andreas. “CLASSIC’s legal services focus on inner-city issues and they’re turning students away.”

The $5,000 student grant will be used to finance bar insurance for two full-time lawyers. USSU vice-president academic affairs Desirée Steele endorsed the project during the meeting, stating that the academic affairs portfolio would benefit substantially from the provision of this type of service.

“Given that the budget is moving into the black this year, I think this is an auspicious time to be making this investment,” Steele said. “There are a lot of students slipping through the cracks, either because they don’t know about their right to an advocate or because they simply don’t know how to find one.”

Overall, Nelson said he is pleased with the 2015–16 budget.

“I hope this instills a lot of confidence that our full-time permanent staff are managing the resources of students really well and have our best interest in mind, because they’ve kept our financial house in order quite well,” said Nelson. “When you think about doing a $25-million renovation and then say that you’re going to go back to balance in five years, that’s pretty impressive.

“I’m very happy with it and I’m actually honoured to be a part of it.”