This week, varying student organizations have compiled budget proposals with the hope that the Student Association will grant them sufficient money to cover their costs for this semester.
The deadline for budget proposals was last Friday. Each student group must sign up for a meeting with Carson Henley, SA’s executive treasurer, and Heath Bracken, SA’s chief financial officer, to discuss their proposals. On Jan. 30 and 31, Henley and Bracken will sit down and piece together the master budget.
“Typically $80,000 or more is asked for, but we only have about $35,000 to $37,000 to give out.” Henley said. “That’s the worst part of this process. It’s hard to decide how to give the money out because it’s so subjective.”
In order to receive funds, student groups must plan their budgets carefully. However, the Virtuous Sisterhood’s president, Keri Gray senior political science and communications major from Longview, said she understands what SA is looking for.
“We usually get a good amount of the money requested because of the character of our group.” Gray said, “We’ve always used a 100 percent of our budget given, and we go into the meeting knowing fully what we want the money for.”
Gray said other groups are less successful because they don’t know precisely how they intend to spend the funds granted and sometimes even neglect to use all of the money.
Student organizations also tend to be granted more money for events that get the whole school involved rather than those that only benefit members.
As the new co-director of the non-profit organization, Wishing Well, Brandy Rains, sophomore art major from Keller, said she was blind going into the process because this was her first budget proposal.
“As a newcomer, it’ll be interesting to see how the SA treasurer responds to our proposal,” Rains said. “He and our previous director were on good terms, and hopefully we can have that relationship as well.”
With the money received, Wishing Well plans to fund school wide events such as an art competition, concerts, and possibly a 5K to raise money for their cause.
On Feb. 1, Henley and Bracken will present the budget proposals to Congress who then will vote and create the final budget for this semester.
Henley said, “Prior to last semester, the budget meetings lasted 2 hours or more. However, last semester things went surprisingly smooth and hopefully this semester will as well.”
By Marissa Jones
