Cerritos College held a Budget Orientation on Aug. 27. The purpose of the orientation was to show students and faculty the Associated Students of Cerritos College’s (ASCC) Budget of the 2014-2015 year, as well as show them how to use those funds.

Cynthia Chavez, student events specialist, announced that the school has over a $1 million to spend. Chavez also mentioned that the school has leftover money in the reserve budget that it wants to spend, which is about $300,000, according to Gilbert Contreras, dean of student services.

“We just want to be open and help educate everyone as to what actually happens with the money, where it’s going and how they can access it and what they need to do to get those funds.”

Contreras echoed the same thoughts about the school being more open with the budget.

“What we are trying to do with the budget orientation is to bring more transparency and information about how the ASCC budget is spent.”

He continued, “I’m really optimistic. I think having budget orientations and sharing with the campus is an important step in communication with everybody, what the students are prioritizing at Cerritos (College) and have everyone support the new procedures that are in place to help our student leaders to help student be successful.”

He really wants to work with the clubs and school groups to allocate the funds.

The money is usually used for student activities, such as In-N-Out and Hoe Down days. ASCC gets the money from the CCSA sticker (the students activity fee), money from the contract the school has with the bookstore and Pepsi and the many vendors around the campus.

For people to access these funds, they need to sign a requisition forms. The school has updated the process for requesting the funds, but the process has not changed much.

According to Contreras, ASCC gets about 1000 requisition forms in a year.

A majority of the funds go to student athletics, student activities, clubs and campus events. It could be used on curricular activities, academic activities, student life activities.

One of the upcoming events that will be funded by the ASCC will be Falcon Gameday, an effort to spread Hispanic awareness and to promote school spirit. This event will take place on Sept. 13 at Falcon Stadium. Free tacos will be served, and there will be live music for those in attendance.