Several weeks ago, The Collegian reported on SA’s tentative budget as suggested by President Haley Anderson. The finalized budget was passed on September 27 and has about $200,000 in higher income and higher spending to go along with it.
The higher income comes in part from a higher than expected amount from student activities fees. That brought in about $50,000 more than the $200,000 expected. However, the bulk of the increase in revenue came from rollover money that was found unexpectedly. According to the Senate minutes, previous Executive Committees did not communicate with the business office and did not realize that some money was rolling over, so the amount of rollover this year is about $127,000 higher than expected.
Most budget items saw an increase in funding by small amounts, but a few areas had significant increases. Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness, which had been allotted $5,000, had its budget doubled. International Student Relations and Diversity and Multiculturalism, which were each allotted $15,000, both saw their budgets doubled as well. Student Awareness had its budget increased from $20,000 to $30,000. Athletics was increased from $40,000 to $50,000 in order to give more to women’s and smaller sports. Senate’s available allocations for student organizations increased by $43,000 to $313,000. TU’s Finest, a competition for the top organizations on campus, had its budget doubled to $3,000 in order to accommodate five organizations rather than three.
There was also a new budget category for “University Collaborations,” which received $30,000. The new budget category is less a new expenditure and more of a formalization of types of spending SA often does anyway. In years past, they’ve funded various miscellaneous items around campus, such as bike desks in the library and t-shirts for Activities Fair. That funding had come from “ambiguous places” in past years, but now it has a line-item under the control of the executive committee.
