Many students know college is expensive, but how often have they wondered where their money goes? Maybe even how their money is budgeted for the colleges fees and bills? Brian Counsil, vice president for finance and operations, is the man with the answers.

Growing up in Neodesha, while also graduating from there, Counsil attended Pittsburg State University where he received his degrees in management and accounting.

After his college years he moved to Kansas City where he worked in many different positions, one being the chief finance officer of a company at which he spent many years. After a few years, Counsil and his family moved back to southeast Kansas and he took this job at Allen.

Part of Counsil’s many duties include planning a college budget with the authorization of the Board of Trustees.

“The annual cost is averaged around 14 million dollars a year,” said Counsil. “We recieve funding from three main sources, those being our student tuition and fees, state grants and our local taxpayers.”

Fourteen million dollars sounds like a lot of money; however, this is the total cost for the campuses in Iola and Burlingame, the online campus and concurrent programs at 70 high schools.

Sports is another aspect of the budgeting process.

“We have a thing called equity in athletics, and we want to spend the same amount on mens sports as we do womens,” Counci said. “We want to pay them the same money, no matter if it’s a female or male coach. It’s all about trying to take our revenues and putting them toward student success and anything that will enhance the students’ life on campus.”

CURRENTLY ALLEN is undergoing its biggest construction renovation in the last 50 years. A percentage of the money raised for these projects comes from students paying for outside sources like room and board, food cost and textbook rentals in the book store.

Budgeting can be a tough and stressful process, but it keeps this college running in the black.