The Students’ Association voted to allocate nearly $38,000 to 40 student organizations across campus Sept. 15. The groups requested a combined total of more than $71,000 from SA, whose fall budget consists of $90,000 in revenue.
In addition to funds allocated for student organizations, the remainder of the SA budget is set aside for SA officer salaries and operational expenses. The total budget for all SA executive officer salaries in the fall 2010 budget is $17,280, and all other SA officer salaries total $6,480. SA will spend $3,661 on operational expenses and $1,375 on Collegiate Cards. The remainder of the budget went to student development expenses, class allocations and the congressional budget.
SA Treasurer Chris Shim, senior finance major from Lawrenceville, Ga., said changes were made this summer to ensure more funds could be allocated to clubs.
“We sat down and looked at expenses from last year,” Shim said. “We looked and streamlined our resources so we could have more resources for student groups.”
Shim said funds allocated this year represented a $2,500 increase from the fall 2009 budget. He said the extra funds were generated by cuts made to operational expenses and Collegiate Cards.
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association received the largest allocation, receiving $3,240 after requesting $4,469. International Students Association and Hispanos Unidos received the second and third highest allocations, respectively, in the budget proposal. The largest funds request came from Wildcat Hockey. The club requested $9,050 and was allocated $1,900.
Shim said this year’s budgetary process was an improvement over past years’ budget allocations. He said the reasons for improvement could be attributed to better communication between SA and student groups.
“We did the best we could. I met with every single student group, and a whole lot of one-on-one meetings were conducted,” Shim said.
In addition to more personal meetings, Shim said SA worked to be more open with student groups in general.
“We had two mass general meetings with all student groups to give them an idea of what the budgeting process would look like,” Shim said. “We went out of our way to invite those student groups to the SA congress meeting on Sept. 15. Their coming out and explaining what they do was huge. I can start the conversation, and the student leader could go more in-depth.”
SA President Samuel Palomares, senior communications major from Abilene, agreed with Shim.
“In recent years, congress would debate among themselves without knowing what is going on,” Palomares said. ” Their physical presence helped a lot. It helped when the club representatives spoke up.”
