The University Program Board has donated the funds made from the sales of student planners and calendars of events to the Student Emergency Aid Fund.
Jan Gaff, communications program specialist and UPB advisor as well as the student planner's coordinator, said the organization raised a total of $11,000 for the emergency fund.
Only students who have exhausted all other means of financial aid, including parents and the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, may access it.
The fund is developed by faculty, staff, students and donations and comprises five different sources of funding.
"We always work to try to figure out how to do better for the students," Gaff said. "We don't want to exclude anyone."
In the past, Ball State gave the books to students for free because they contained the student code. But after the student code was put online and removed from the planners, students were no longer required to have one.
Gaff met with Student Center director Bruce Morgan, assistant director of campus programming Janice Altland, TIS manager Fred McIlrath and Barnes and Noble employee Bonnie Hill and decided to sell the planners.
"It was a hard decision to sell it because we'd been giving it away for years," Gaff said. "We decided to give it to the emergency fund. It was never a question of who would get the money, by why we had to sell it."
According to Gaff, other colleges and universities were contacted for price estimates. The costs varied from $3.95 to $8.95.
Planners with the Ball State logo were sold for $5.95, while the UPB Ball State planners went on sale for $2 each.
"We weren't doing this to make that kind of money," Gaff said. "(The purposes of) other schools I called were to offset costs and make a profit. We were doing it to offset some costs, but it was mainly for the students."
Gaff also said many colleges and universities had outside companies manufacture the books. Ball State planners are created on campus to cut back on costs.
Next year's planners will be smaller, and UPB is developing an endowment fund that may turn into either a scholarship for students or some other form of aid.
Whatever happens, Gaff said, they want to make the funds available for all students. Gaff said she hopes they will continue to buy the planners.
Gaff said that if students buy the books, they'll learn that the only people profiting from its sales are the students.
Gaff said, "They spend the money (for the planners), and it comes back to them in some shape or form."
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