SGA Slashes Budgets

The student government allocated club funds for this year last night at their general meeting.

The vote to not contest or refuse the funds given passed 22-4 among club representatives. If the budgets had not passed, the clubs would have met again a week from now and go through the budgeting process again, this time in the old fashion of budgeting that was in place for the SGA just a few years ago. That way of budgeting would lead into club against club disagreements, and there was a general agreement was that going back to that method would not win clubs much more money, if any, then they were given last night.

Many clubs were relatively satisfied with the money they received. Peter Ryan, student government Anime club rep says although he spoke up against the budget originally, that he wasn't actually angry at all. "The DVD budget is fine," Ryan continues "but we were planning a guest speaker which would benefit the theater and graphic design majors as well, and that part got completely cut." Ryan says he purposely set his budget higher then he thought his club needed because he knew that most clubs were not going to get the full amount of money they requested.

All the clubs were not in agreement however about the fairness of the amount they were given. Jeremy Goldberg, the Hockey team's SGA representative was not pleased with the numbers. Goldberg says the team requested $35,626 and was given $26,600 from the student government. That cut is about $9,000 that Jeremy says will hurt the team short and long term. "We use every bit of money SGA gives us," Jeremy says. He says the team uses the money given by SGA for icing, referees, transportation, for a trainer, and for fees to play in the league. Since the team got cut as much as they did, Goldberg says the team is debating whether they can even play next season. The team will have to up the team dues, which will discourage incoming and continuing students from playing on the team, therefore losing valuable players. "Now, with what we are faced with, I don't know what the team will look like next year, it's very disheartening" Goldberg says.

A full report on the new hockey budget and its repercussions can be found on page (?)

As mixed feelings were discussed, the point was brought up that clubs can still earn their money through fundraising efforts, as well as request funds on a more individual basis from the general SGA fund.

How Budgeting Works: Step by Step

1.     All clubs are required to submit a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. If they do not submit a budget, then they don't get any money.

2.     The Student Government Association  executive board collects all of the information and sends out the proposed club budgets to the SGA elected representatives.

3.     The elected representatives hold a meeting of presentations where each club has a total of 10 minutes to present their budget.

4.     The elected representatives then hold a meeting to cut items out of club budgets until the "magic number," the highest amount of money SGA can approve to be allocated, is reached.

5.    Each cut has to be approved by a majority of elected representatives.

6.     The SGA executive board are the only people who know the magic number.

7.     The SGA executive board then presents it to the SGA clubs and it needs a two-thirds vote to be approved.