News > March 29, 2007

By Lizzie Rosen

News editor

The Student Government legislature voted and passed the final Student Budget Advisory Committee recommendations for 2007-’08 March 27. The SBAC asked for a total of $591,294 with $482,455 going towards funding all organizations, such as Model UN and GSSA, and $108,829 going towards funding all clubs, such as the rowing club.

The top three benefactors were the Old Gold & Black ($107,680) and the Howler ($100,000), followed by Student Government ($54,845).

The SBAC had a $25,000 budget increase from the previous year. All decisions were made unanimously by the committee, which is comprised of chairman of the SBAC, treasurer sophomore Sarah Walker, senior Tanner Henderson, junior Bryan Keith, sophomore Andie Vaughn and freshmen Kelly Gaugler and Saket Munshaw. Decisions were made considering each group as an individual entity without comparison to other groups also seeking funds.

A majority of groups received decreased amounts from what they requested and 18 groups received a decrease from what they received last year.

Sixteen groups who formerly requested funding were given none since they did not request it. Fourteen groups were recommended to Appropriations and Charter Committee for next year because SBAC felt they did not require more than $500 in funding and organizations who request less than $500 cannot be funded by the SBAC according to the SBAC Handbook.

“The organizations that demonstrated an active role on campus involving students, demonstrated need for increased funding, showed active efforts in fund raising, completed their program reports, and presented clear and determined new plans for next year were provided as much extra funding as we could afford,” Walker said.

Eight new groups received funding while 47 groups received an increase in funding from what they received last year.

According to the SBAC Handbook, organizations that are unhappy with their allocations can appeal after the publishing of the preliminary budget, and can appeal to the committee for an appeal hearing before the budget is finalized. The final budget is then submitted to the Student Government Legislature for approval after the appeal process is over.

Several initiatives were undertaken by the SBAC this past year including the use of monthly program reports to monitor organization’s use of funds. “The implementation of the monthly program reposts has allowed the SBAC to make better educated decisions when we allocated funding this year,” Walker said.

Program reports serve as objective examinations and evaluations of events held by an organization with respect to attendance level and effective use of funding to ensure effective spending and to make the SBAC process more efficient.

Program reports request dates, events, cosponsors, event attendance as well as spending figures. Treasurers for all SBAC fund organizations complete the Program Report forms monthly and then e-mail them to the group’s SBAC representative.

The SBAC is currently in the process of designing a database to compile the program reports in order to create a SBAC website for submitting program reports in order to use the program reports as concrete data when re-submitting the SBAC’s proposal to the university next year.

“The aim of the proposal was to improve the way we receive funding from the university, specifically to request a specific amount of funding for student groups from the university, like any other university department,” Walker said. “The proposal would be based on the students’ demonstrated need instead of receiving an arbitrary amount that does not take into account the increasing number of activities In which students are involved/lead/organizing nor the increasing number of student organizations requesting funding on campus.”

SBAC funds are intended to cover speaker or performer fees, general supplies, advertising materials, room and equipment rentals as well as any items that organizations demonstrate to the SBAC are required for success on campus.