The Student Activities Fee (SAF) is a mandatory fee paid by all matriculated undergraduate students. Currently, it is $99.50 each semester. This amount was instituted in 2015, 8 years ago.

The SAF is collected and disbursed by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) It goes towards several different places:

Clubs and organizations
Groups are funded through line-budgets, probationary budgets, and grants.
USG funds over 160 clubs and organizations with budgets ranging from just a few hundred dollars to up to $40,000 dollars.
Funded groups include the residence hall association and hall councils, sports clubs, cultural organizations, Stony Brook’s Radio Station (WUSB), and many more!

Student Activities Board (SAB)
SAB plans events such as Wolfieland, Spooky Brook, Brookfest, Comedy Show, Roth Regatta, and more!

Payroll for USG’s staff
In order to effectively manage and distribute USG’s budget, and plan and staff our large-scale events USG requires both full time professional staff and part time student staff.

USG’s full budgets for this year and past years can be viewed here!

The SAF has not been increased since 2015. As you may know, inflation of the US Dollar has increased since then, meaning that while the amount of money in the SAF hasn’t gone down, its value has. $99.50 in 2015 is equivalent to about $125 in 2023!

As well, New York State minimum wage for Suffolk County will be increasing to $16 in 2024, which increases how much USG’s student workers must be paid.

These factors have resulted in money being cut from the Student Activities Board and Club Budgets, meaning your favorite events and organizations are having a harder time getting the funding they require.

The current SAF is at $99.50 per semester as of Fall 2023. We are proposing an increase to $106.50, going forward for Spring 2024. That’s only $7 - while it seems small, it can cause a big difference!

Right now the SUNY average for Student Activity Fee is about $109. Raising our SAF would keep us below the average (keeping costs for SBU students cheaper than other SUNYs!), while still providing enough new funding for student life to grow!

While a small portion will go towards minimum wage increases and accounting for inflation. The majority will be for YOU- the student body! The Student Activities Board will get a major increase- so be on the lookout for some great event improvements in the future.

We have seen an unprecedented number of new clubs on campus as well. Last year, USG funded over 20 new clubs, and gave out over $40,000 to these clubs. Our existing clubs on campus also continue to grow, increasing their membership and the scope of their events. This increase will allow for more funding available for Clubs in the coming years.

This year, USG embarked on an in depth review of our budget and funding structure. We looked at past cost increases, inflation rates and future projections in order to determine the minimum increase needed to sustain USG over the next few years (about $3-5). This would be the bare minimum to prevent USG from having to cut funding from clubs and traditions in the next few years.

USG also looked at the rate that clubs and traditions / major events are growing and being created on campus. We determined that an additional $2-4 increase would allow USG to support new clubs, provide much needed club budget increases, and add to traditions and student life over the next three to five years.