Spencer Titus, a Kansas University junior from Newton, and Sara Thompson, fifth-year student from Salina, work at the Queers & Allies booth Tuesday during the Sextival 2009 on the KU campus. Queers & Allies is one of about 200 campus organizations that had less money directed their way this year because students decided to hold the line on overall fee increases.

Kansas University’s Student Senate has about 10 percent fewer dollars to distribute this year — and campus and community groups are feeling the pinch.

Because students decided to hold the line on their overall fee increases, that meant the amount Senate had to distribute from activity fee revenue dropped from $824,000 to $742,000.

In turn, that means less money was funneled to about 200 organizations. So student groups — from the KU Queers & Allies to the KU bands — have made cutbacks.

But it doesn’t stop with on-campus organizations.

The fee also funds community nonprofit groups such as GaDuGi SafeCenter and Douglas County AIDS Project.

Both organizations lost money this year from student fees.

Sarah Jane Russell, GaDuGi executive director, said that the $25,627 received from Student Senate this year — down more than 10 percent from the previous year — is among the most important dollars that the center receives, because it’s unrestricted funds.

That’s unlike most grant money the center receives, which comes with very specific requirements for spending.

“The funding sources that allow us to keep our doors open are KU Student Senate funding and the United Way of Douglas County funding,” Russell said.

While the center will still be able to provide its services and protect its core mission of providing support for survivors of sexual violence and their families, friends and partners, it will have to cut back in other areas, such as supplies and copying costs, Russell said.

She said she realizes it’s a difficult economy, but she had hoped GaDuGi wouldn’t be forced into cutbacks.

Mitch Knopp, student body treasurer, said senators chose not to make across-the-board percentage cuts for its organizations, opting instead for more targeted cuts.

“There’s no magical percentage we’re trying to hit, but we’re just being more choosy about the services these groups provide,” Knopp said.

Not many groups avoided cuts. But some, like Headquarters Counseling Center, were funded at the same level.

Student groups, also, are making do with less money. The KU Cultural India Club — one that Knopp singled out as spending money wisely — has about $1,000 less than it had last year.

Sudarshan Loya, the group’s treasurer and a sophomore from Aurangabad, India, said the group would be re-using decorations from last year, and would have to scale back some of its programming.

“This is the first year in six years that our funding has gone down,” Loya said. “A thousand dollars means a lot to us. It’s 20 percent of our total budget.”

The Senate still has about $115,000 of its $742,000 left to allocate this year, Knopp said, and there will likely be no shortage of groups looking for money.

Knopp said the Senate usually tries to maximize the impact the money has on students, but that sometimes is a difficult — and subjective — calculation to make. Last year, the Senate burned through much of its available funding in the first few months, leaving little for the latter half of the year.

“Sometimes, we’re just going to have to be the bad guy and say no to some groups,” he said.