The Student Government Association (SGA) is still facing the effects of a smaller freshman class, unauthorized spending in the past with the student activity fee reserve account and the student activity fee decreasing by $1 in 2014 and remaining in 2015, according to Dustyn Hall, treasurer of SGA.
“So far this year we have allocated $15,502.16 so that’s what we have allocated through SFC (Student Finance Committee) so those one time requests so our original balance for the year was that $32,589.95 so our available balance is $17,087.69 as of right now,” said Hall.
SFC is used to spending roughly $185,000 a year. In the budget for the year, the Educational Programming Appropriations Act (EPAA) is promised $20,000, Graduate Student Fees are promised $14,830 and National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is promised $7,000, according to the SGA Financial Year Preview.
In the promised spending, the total budgeting for the year is $682,617.25
Clubs and organizations come to SFC with a monetary request which can be approved or denied before it's voted on for the final say in SGA. All undergraduate students pay student activity fees that account for the total number of credit hours a student is taking per semester and SFC and SGA are given the authority to determine whether or not to allocate the requested funds, according to Hall
“We want our clubs and organizations to continue to thrive and we recognize that financial support from the SGA is a crucial factor to the success of many organizations,” said SGA President Dillon Yonker.
The SFC has received a letter from the administration stating their promise to increase the student activity fee for the 2017-18 year, according to Hall.
The SGA is looking at developing a system of checks and balances to prevent such a situation in the future, according to Hall.
“It’s gotten a lot better in our communication with professional staff members and administrative staff members here at the university and those issues are being resolved and they’re being discussed amongst our executive council.” said Hall. “I just think that sometimes being in charge of a $700,000 budget and then what was a $32,000 reserve fund can be a lot of pressure,” added Hall.
“The Student Finance Committee is continuing to work diligently and responsibly to appropriate funds to our student organizations,” said Yonker.
Hall reiterated that when the Student Finance Committee (SFC) is deciding upon a reallocation to an organization, the funds used have already been allocated in the spring budgeting sessions to the organization and are now using the funds for another purpose.
“Like this past week at SFC we reallocated for Lancer Productions,” said Hall.
At the end of the semester, Colton Hanks, SGA fiscal technician, will note which organizations have not spent all of their allocated funds from the spring budget that will roll into the reserve fund for the future, according to Hall.
“I don't think the ideal situation was to get into the reserve. In my opinion our reserves should be saved for emergency situations. Do I think that at the end of the semester the $17,000 will be gone and our reserve will be completely gone? Most likely, yes,” said Hall.
Hall disclosed that the process for organizations to participate in the spring budgeting sessions has changed since last spring.
“The process is a little different, it’s a lot less pressure on the student organizations and the SGA which is good but it’s a lot more work on my end but I like how we are going to do it,” said Hall.
Organizations can find information pertaining to the upcoming budgeting session on the SGA website in order to submit their budget on Lancer Link by Feb. 28 by 11:59 a.m.
“Ideally with the student activity fee going up we are still going to base our budget session off of this past years enrollment now I would hope our enrollment goes up. We don’t want to end up in this exact same thing,” said Hall.
Hall expressed his gratitude for Kevin Napier, a junior kinesiology major who also serves as an executive senator on SGA, who has had “a real keen eye with helping with the budget and with making sure that I feel supported”.
“I think students understand one, that we are in a bit of a crunch, two, that it has to benefit the student body and three, that we are willing to help them find other sources of funding,” said Hall.
In terms of finding alternative spending for organizations that are denied in the weekly SFC meetings, Hall added that recently for MLK Celebration week that was sponsored by the Student Diversity and Inclusion Council the SFC gave the organization the idea to pair up with two other organizations to allocate funds from the EPAA account rather than the SGA Reserve fund.
“I know that it looks like we are being the bad guys but we do care and we are trying our hardest,” added Hall.
SFC meetings occur weekly at 6 p.m. on Thursdays in the Amelia Room in the Lankford Student Union.
All student organizations and clubs rely on the Student Government Association to supply some of their funds to run their groups.
Community Ties, Social Justice in Action Leadership (SJAL), Lancer Productions and Zeta Phi all visited the Student Government Association.
