By Joyrenzia Cheatham and Zahra Marcus, The Whetstone

Did you know that Wesley College’s spends about $50 million a year to keep itself running, and it takes in just about that same amount? Or that what they pay everyone on campus comes to about a third of all that?

Probably not.

You also probably didn’t know that, every year, Aramark Food Services gets nearly $3 million of the College’s money, while maintenance gets $1.3 million, IT gets $1.1 million and the Barnes and Noble bookstore that provides our textbooks gets nearly $400,000.

Whatever you do, don’t ask why.

We may never know the reasons why all that money, as reported on the College’s 990 form – a form that all non-profit institutions must fill out and send to the federal government – is spent on these things.

“These are not things that we address publicly nor do we share this type of detail,” Chief Financial Officer Belinda Burke said about the money reported on the form.

She also said the 990 Tax form may not have a direct correlation to Wesley’s annual budget.

What does that mean?

We have to figure it out for ourselves.

Which is strange, since previous Whetstone stories included other administrators and even former CFOs explaining what things mean.

Not anymore. What the kids don’t know won’t hurt them.

The 990 form is available for the public to view. But the public only gets to view the form years after it was filed. So, the numbers you see above, the latest numbers we can see, are for the calendar year 2015, not the school year of 2015-2016.

Senior Mercedes Myrick does not understand why IT gets so much money.

“The Wi-Fi either never works or it runs slow all time, especially when I am doing homework in the Library,” she said. “Even last week the Wi-Fi went out for hours and I couldn’t even access the Internet for my homework and that was not the first time that happened.”

Junior Jasmine Evans said Aramark’s budget, at least as far as can figure out on our own, does not match the quality of the food.

“With the food options Wesley College offer to us, I wouldn’t have guessed it was worth a $3 million deal with Aramark,” she said. “The food is the same everyday and half the time I’d rather just order out.”

Some students said they think the school could spend money better.

“Wesley College needs to start spending their money toward the student,” senior Brandon Thomas said. “It would be nice if the campus gave us more options to keep us entertained. I pay Wesley too much money to not be seeing any investment going towards the college but with signed bricks and statues.”

“Why can’t we focus on touching up some of the things we already have such as the Malmberg gym?” senior Luis Artega said. “Once we take care of the things we already have, then we can move forward. Right now, we don’t know where money is going.”

According to the form, the school also has a low endowment, of about $4.5 million, which increased only about $200,000 over the last four years – according to previous 990 forms.

“What does President Clark do, besides show up on campus and walk around,” junior Alexis Waugh said. “I’m not saying that’s all he does but that is all I have seen him do. I had no clue he was supposed to raising money for school. That ($4.5 million) isn’t a lot compared to DSU.”

Delaware State University’s endowment is $28.7 million.

Burke did say that, contrary to rumors, the school is not considering selling Gooding Hall.

But no one yet knows whether President Clark will rent out a dorm to DSU students.

The 2015 form reflects President William Johnston’s last year, and at least the first half-year of President Clark’s. According to the form, Johnston made $263,363, while Clark made $108,417 in his first half-year at Wesley. Clark’s third year is coming to a close.

Athletic Director and football coach Mike Drass is one of Wesley College’s highest-paid employees at $113,978, while Professor Malcolm D’Souza was the highest-paid professor, at $125,828.

The Chief Financial Officer and vice president of institutional advancement brought in about $150,000 each.

Why?

Don’t ask, Wolverines. Just deal with it.