Student Association Senate allocates funds to student organizations for various events. However, this year they were short on funds and concerned about their ability to continue paying organizations. Mackenzie Smith, Treasurer for most of this year, released the figures on SA’s budget.
SA gets their funding from a variety of sources. They got about $200,000 each semester from student fees. The Provost Office gave them about $203,000 for the year. They also had about $155,000 leftover from last year. Combined, they had about $757,000 for the year.
At the beginning of the year, $275,000 was allocated for spending on student organizations. Scholarships and student awards each got small allocations, with $4,000 and $2,000, respectively. Cabinet was allocated $300,000. The reason Cabinet received more funds is that their events are supposed to appeal to the campus as a whole rather than more niche interests.
Senate had spent more than half of their money for student organizations by the end of first semester. That was a concern because student organizations typically request larger sums second semester.
The reasoning for the shortage was primarily because of different class sizes from past years. This year’s incoming class was smaller, and the seniors who graduated last year were a larger group. This meant less money available from student fees.
A few steps were taken to ensure that student organizations would continue to have plenty of funding. Some money was taken out of Cabinet’s allocations. Additionally, the Treasurer has the authority to recall funds left in student accounts at the end of the semester. While this step is not normally taken, Mackenzie Smith did so this year.
About $50,000 of organization money is left. Smith said this should be enough to cover student organizations for the last few weeks of the year. Even if it isn’t, SA has a $40,000 contingency fund. Overall, they’re expecting a rollover of $100,000.
