News > October 18, 2007

By Molly Nevola | Staff writer

The Student Budget Advisory Committee, an advisory board that falls under the duties of Student Government Treasurer Sarah Walker, will reconvene in its 17th year this coming February to appropriate funding to all student organizations. This year the SBAC, which appropriates funding to about 150 clubs, including sports, academic, political and religious organizations, is comprised of eight members, including Walker at the head of the committee, aided by seven other students of all years.

During the first semester, the SBAC meets for emergency funding hearings and as requested by organizations.

The committee acts as an advisory board for groups, answering questions and solving budgeting problems.

Walker instituted monthly program reports last year, which allows the committee to collect, review and store information on how allocated funding is used.

In February, the SBAC will meet five to six days per week for two to five hours each session in order to allocate money to all student groups who request funding for their various activities for the 2008-’09 school year.

When a group signs up for an appointment, the president and treasurer of the group prepare and present a line-item budget for the following school year, outlining the areas in which they intend to spend their money.

The SBAC inquires about their past performance, as evidenced by their monthly program reports, and asks details about their budget.

Immediately following the meeting, which in order to be official must have at least five of the eight members present, the SBAC votes on the request.

The SBAC then determines the group’s allotment individually, and the vote must be unanimous. After the last group has presented, the committee looks at the numbers as a whole to keep the total within the lump sum figure that the university offers student groups for funding.

The appeals process begins in March, giving the chairs of organizations who were not satisfied with their allotment a chance to request more.

Junior Caroline Lawler, in her first year as an appointed SBAC member, said the system is a good way of making due with the severely limited amount of money that the university has to distribute.

“The process works because every student group that is funded with our money is held to the same standard of financial accountability, and each group gets a fair shot at explaining why they should receive funding,” Lawler said.

Sophomore member Saket Munshaw said that students themselves know best what the organizations are doing for other students and therefore know best how to make the final decisions on monetary allotments.

But the job isn’t easy. “The worst thing is having to cut the budget requests of deserving groups because of the limits on the funding … it is tough to decide who gets what money, but somebody has to do it,” Lawler said.

Walker is currently in her second year serving as SG treasurer. Three of her committee members were elected as members of SBAC.

The remaining four members of the committee were appointed and confirmed by SG.

Walker, who is not technically involved in chartering organizations, has two jobs: chairperson of the SBAC and treasurer of SG.

This year in particular she has assisted in triggering the need for guidelines for the Appropriations and Charter Committee, a separate SG group that is pushing to become simply the Charter Committee.

Senior Bryan Keith, co-chair of the Appropriations and Charter committee and fellow SBAC member said that the system will ultimately need to come to proportionate increases in funding by the university based on the level of student group activity.

“The system is fine,” Keith said. “The resources we as a committee have to make it work are not.”

The aim is that SBAC will appropriate all funding, even for groups that normally went to Appropriations and Charter for their yearly monies, by next semester.

“This is a very straight forward system,” Walker said. “But the stringent guidelines for chartering need to be put in place.”

SBAC hopes to implement these changes, which will occur only if the Committee on Student Life approves the guidelines.