By Mitch Holt, Copy Editor
The Students’ Association had its first meeting of the semester Wednesday after a late start, and discussion of the fall budget took the spotlight.
SA’s fall budget is up more than $70,000 from the spring budget, totaling almost $170,000 because of an increase in enrollment. Several changes and improvements have been put into action by the association’s financial officers.
The university’s budget committee’s total revenue is almost $340,000, and the committee approved SA to receive half of the lump sum, along with a $14,000 roll over from SA’s spring budget.
Tyler Cosgrove, executive financial officer and senior management and finance major from Amarillo, said in SA’s first meeting Wednesday that each student organization on campus receives a different amount of money each semester based not on popularity but on the demand of the organization.
“I can’t say ‘each organization will get x amount of money’ because some organizations have higher
budget up from spring
demand than others,” Cosgrove said. “If it has higher demand, why shouldn’t we give them more money than the others?”
Along with an increase in funding for the association, several changes from last semester’s budget have taken effect, including an increase in the amount of funding for student travel expenses required in various out-of-town activities.
Cosgrove also said SA’s communication with student organizations has improved from last term because they often have questions about financial policy, and several sit-down meetings have and will take place during the semester to inform the organizations of changes being made to financial policy.
“These meetings will help keep organizations accountable financially,” he said. “It’s really just precautionary, but everyone needs to be held accountable.”
Also discussed in the meeting were the strategic objectives of the fall SA budget. According to the budget packet, student advocacy, leadership development, student involvement, creating a lifestyle of service and financial growth are the financial objectives of the association.
Maher Saab, senior political science major from Abilene and SA president, said he feels blessed to be part of a budget that allows SA to give more to student organizations.
“Since a larger budget has been approved for us, we have a larger opportunity better fund [organizations] to do their thing so they can better serve the community,” Saab said. “It’s more like a chain reaction. We give them more and they, in turn, give more to the community.”
