CSU budget updates include $20k operational deficit and service expansions

Legal Information Clinic to add $50k in staff honorariums, Advocacy Centre to create new position

NewsHannah Scott-Talib — Published August 13, 2025 0 minutes

The CSU also presented recent changes to their budget.

According to its website, the SAF is a student-run fee levy group at Concordia University that seeks to fund projects to “develop sustainable infrastructure, urban agriculture, community-building, and education surrounding environmental and community issues, with the long-term goal of inspiring and developing a culture of sustainability” at the university. 

In the meeting, CSU sustainability coordinator Mia Kennedy was appointed as an executive to the SAF Board of Directors alongside CSU councillor Sarah Aspler. 

“With my past experience volunteering for different organizations, I feel that I would be a good candidate,” Aspler said during the meeting. “Getting more people on [the board of directors] who are neurodiverse would be a good idea as well, opening it up for everyone and making it more [accessible] for everyone.”

Following this point on the meeting’s agenda, CSU finance coordinator Ryan Assaker presented adjustments to the student union’s budget. 

“One of the biggest things that has changed [is that] we’ve seen an [increase] in academic initiatives,” Assaker said during the budget presentation. “Academic initiatives have gone up around $6,000-$16,000.” 

According to Assaker, another budget increase can be seen in the domain of sustainability initiatives. 

“We’ve seen some carbon offset projects that have happened in the past that are also going to happen this year,” he said. “There’s also a major thing that we do every year, which is the Menstrual Equity program, which provides hygienic products to students." 

Assaker then explained that several student services have a significant budget surplus—money accumulated by these services as a result of going under budget in previous years—that transfers into a CSU savings account.

This surplus, Assaker said, can be used by student services to expand and create new initiatives. 

One of the expansions happening this year, according to Assaker, involves the Legal Information Clinic (LIC), which has accumulated around $115,000 worth of surplus.

Drawing from this surplus, the LIC is upping their honorariums section by $50,000 “due to the high demand in terms of students reaching out to be represented and informed [by the LIC],” according to Assaker. 

Assaker said that the Advocacy Centre plans to expand as well, due to the creation of a new working position at the centre. 

The finance coordinator finished the presentation by revealing the CSU’s current total revenues of $4.1 million and its total expenses of $4.2 million, creating a deficit of around $20,000. 

“Generally for the budget, what’s important to keep in mind is that nothing much has changed in terms of [cuts to] the student services,” Assaker said. “The main cuts that have happened are more on the operational side, and we’re still seeing a deficit in operational costs.”