Budgeting is Magical

            Not everything the Student Government Association does is laid out in black and white.

The SGA opera­tes under a constitution, but there are a few things that the SGA does that are not a part of it. One of them references a "magic number." The magic number is mentioned in the SGA constitution, but does not spell out exactly what it is and what it does.

The magic number is the amount of money allocated to the SGA for the next year from student activity fees. The SGA then distributes the money amongst the clubs in the budgeting process.

That amount has not been released at the time of this publication because the budget is awaiting approval by LSC President Steve Gold. The budget that is up for approval totals $107,465 and Julie Austin, the SGA financial controller, said that number was at least $10,000 under the magic number.

 "The idea behind using the magic number is so that reps aren't just going to cut for the sake of cutting," said SGA President Nick Russo. "People might just cut to get to the magic number instead of actually cutting what they thought needed to be cut from the budget."

During budgeting, conducted by the elected representatives, that amount of money is kept secret. Only the SGA executive board and their advisor, Melissa Nelson, know the amount. Russo stated that other SGAs around the country use the same process to keep representatives from finding an easy way out.

"It is not that we don't trust them," he said. "I know I trust the reps to make cuts where cuts need to be made, but it is just a safety mechanism so that we don't have massive things cut out of the budget just because someone has a personal vendetta or whatever the case may be."

Russo did not know if that sort of scenario would actually happen since he has only known the magic number form of budgeting, but assured that it would be better to have a device such as a magic number in place, just in case.

"Doing it this way makes sense because it means we're fair to everybody," said Laura Martin, a first year elected representative. "We're not biased. We literally take from clubs what we think is proper. We give them what we think is proper and not knowing the magic number is better because we aren't able to just go through half and be nice to half the clubs and mean to the others."

First year elected representative Paige Ferratto agrees.

"I think it's a good idea because nobody knows it besides the people on the board and I think it's better to keep it undercover then to let it out to everyone," she said. "Otherwise, clubs are going to be arguing over money and everyone's going to having a big problem with [budgeting]."

Another practice that the SGA executive has put in place is not in the constitution. Starting this year, the executive board has banned the use of electronics such as cell phones, laptops, and iPads for representatives at SGA meetings as part of its authority for rules of order. The ban happened after many SGA representatives were watching a Red Sox game during an SGA meeting.

The constitution lays out some of the rules of order and says that the SGA use Robert's Rules, a basic handbook for operation of clubs and organizations, as a guide.

"There is a technicality under Robert's Rules, we can establish any rules for order we want and one of the rules of order we established this year was that electronics wouldn't be allowed," said Russo. "It just keeps the reps focused on the meeting as opposed to being distracted."

Since it is not in the constitution the new practice could have been put to a vote by the whole SGA. Russo did not see the need for that.

"We could have, but (Nelson) interpreted it as the SGA executive board sets the rules of order for the meetings," he said. "Therefore, we could implement that rule without a vote by the whole student government."

Emma Shattuck, the Model UN club representative, has no problem with the ban.

"I understand the reasoning for it," she said. "I think that a vote would have been a good idea just so that people wouldn't question that decision, but I agree with it because at most meetings it is pretty standard not to be on your phone. You should be paying attention."

The constitution can be amended and at the next SGA meeting that process will begin.

"We are opening up the constitutional committee in a few weeks where SGA members will come together and make some proposed amendments to the constitution and that will be sent to a student body wide vote at the same time our executive board elections happen this year in mid-April," Russo said.

Those not affiliated with the SGA can attend the meetings to give their feedback on what changes they think should be made. But there is another way to change the constitution.

"If someone wanted to change the constitution they could also get a petition signed with 10 percent of the student body, which is about 150 students, and then submit it to us and we would include those proposed changes in an SGA meeting."

Budget Breakdown