The Student Government Association’s (SGA) finance committee faces lower available funds in this year’s budget and a growing list of requests for assistance from clubs and organizations.
The SGA’s finance committee receives $160,000 per year to be allocated to club budgets and to the several accounts within the SGA. Michael Roma, SGA finance committee member and a sophomore diplomacy, economics and finance major, said the appropriated funds are divided into three separate segments: the seasonal, operational and co-sponsorship accounts.
The spring and co-sponsorship accounts are lower than they were at this point last year. Currently, the spring budget is $5,184 lower, while the operational budget is $2,274 higher, according to Roma. As stated in the association’s bylaws, the SGA treasurer is responsible for distributing and managing all financial records while collaborating with fellow finance committee members. At the beginning of each fiscal school year, the treasurer is required to develop an allocation formula that provides appropriate funding to clubs across campus.
Alyssa Potenzone, SGA treasurer, declined to comment on the matter.
With over two months remaining in the spring semester, more than half the spring budget has been used with $7,288 remaining, according to Roma. Within the next two weeks, the SGA has $12,000 of requests in additional funding from clubs as specified by Roma.
“Clubs have grown, the university has grown, [the SGA] has had more requests, likewise inflation has gone up, prices are higher and I think that needs to be met with the administration compensating that by giving [clubs] more funding,” Roma said.
According to SGA Finance Chair Thomas Kraft, a junior and political science and philosophy major, SGA’s spending may be above last year’s mark, but the increase in spending should not cause concern. Clubs on campus have put on atypically large events and the SGA has had to respond to these activities with more contributions, he said via email.
“Traditionally, spending goes up in the Spring semester as it is longer, and many clubs choose to save their budgets for the second half of the year, for a myriad of reasons,” Kraft said. “Rest assured that the state of the budget is quite healthy.”
Thomas Schwartz can be reached at thomas.schwartz@student.shu.edu.
