Students who shelled out hundreds of dollars in books at the beginning of the year might not know it, but their money not only goes to the bookstore, it also funds ASUA.

Students' myths have circulated about the source of ASUA's $924,103 budget with guesses ranging from the Arizona Board of Regents to private donors to tuition.

"I believe ASUA gets most of its money from the university budget and students' tuition," said John Bridges, pre-business junior.

But, contrary to students' myths, half of ASUA funds, $432,0000, come from the bookstore, and for the next four years, that amount will be increasing.

Last year, Doug Hartz, former student body president, extended the contract with the bookstore in order to prevent a significant loss of funds after ASUA suffered from a budget cut last year.

In the new contract the bookstore agreed to pay ASUA an extra $35,000 a year for the next four years.

Prior to 1971, ASUA owned the bookstore, but during that year the bookstore became privately owned. An agreement was made between the new owner and ASUA declaring that the bookstore must handover a portion of its profits to ASUA in order to be given ownership of the store's operations.

"I rather the money go to ASUA than to the book publishers," Randy Mitzman, pre-business sophomore, said.

Although many students support the contract between the bookstore and ASUA, some are weary of it.

"Are the bookstore prices so high because they have to give a portion to ASUA?" asked, Meghan Davis, undeclared sophomore.

The next big contributor to ASUA's funds is the student body itself. The fees they pay during their time at the UA are transferred from the main UA budget. Ten percent of the fees go directly to the senate to be used on their salaries and senate operations. The rest of the money is allocated throughout ASUA.

The remaining fraction of ASUA's money comes from transfers made from the UA budget as well as a Pepsi sponsorship.

Pepsi contributes $5,000 to ASUA's sponsored Spring Fling event. In return Pepsi is recognized for its corporate sponsorship at the carnival.

With all of the money ASUA receives, the next issue students' wonder about is how the money is spent, especially since they are contributors to the budget.

"I believe that (ASUA) money is completely spent on student activities and clubs," said Stephen Cole, pre-business junior.

Thirty-seven percent of the money that ASUA acquires is used for ASUA staff and student officers' salaries. Another 35 percent is spent on ASUA programs and services like SafeRide, Pride Alliance, Freshman Class Council, Speakers Board, and Bear Down Camp.

The rest of the remaining funds are used for entertainment events such as Catfest, Battle of the Bands, and CatCraze. Club funding is also included in the ASUA budget with proposed costs of $85,012.

Students have their own ideas on where ASUA should be spending most of their money.

"They should market their presence more, students don't take advantage of their different sources," said Edward Sullivan, finance pre-law junior. "Their budget is mediocre but it has the opportunity to be so much more effective."

The ASUA budget isn't that big, when compared to other universities across the nation. California universities receive up to 2 million dollars in revenues, which enables them to do more as well.

"We have a significantly smaller budget than other universities," said Cale Miller, who prepared ASUA's 2003-2004 budget, "We are constrained by our revenue sources and the amount (we receive) hasn't been growing."

This small budget contradicts students' perceptions of where ASUA budget stands in comparison to other universities.

"I think (the UA) ranks fairly high up there, they have a large budget to work from," said Mitzman.