The Students’ Association passed a budget of about $46,500 on Feb. 5.
SA treasurer JP Ralston and financial officer Victoria Garza worked to create a new format to propose the budget in front of Congress.
“Victoria and I worked 50 hours on this new budget,” Ralston said.
SA based the new budget off of how much organizations spent last semester. Those that used more of last semester’s budget were more likely to be funded than organizations that didn’t.
“We hope that with the way we worked the new budget, the meeting will go smoother,” said Ralston on Tuesday before the meeting.
However, the meeting on Thursday went two hours over the expected time.
After the budget was proposed in front of Congress, students from various organizations were allowed to ask Congress to consider making amendments to the budget. About $250 was left to be allocated.
The first amendment was made to take $50 from the remaining budget and give it to the tennis team. Congress approved the amendment.
The next amendment was to take $240 from the Venture Crew and give it to Wildcat Reign. Congress passed the amendment with a 26-member approval.
An amendment was made to place $30 from the remaining budget into the kinesiology funds. The amendment was passed unanimously.
Congress then made an amendment to take about $170 from the remaining budget and place it in the appropriations fund. The amendment passed with 30-member approval.
For a while, there was silence in the budget meeting. An amendment was made to pass the budget as several Congress members debated that not all clubs had a chance to argue for more funds.
The organization that fought most for more funding was the ACU cycling team. Congress tried three times to pass an amendment to allow the team a chance to invest in jerseys with the new Wildcat logo. On the third attempt, $150 was taken from the soccer club team’s budget and given to the cycling team for new jerseys. The amendment was passed unanimously.
Other organizations that tried to receive more funding failed. SHADES Step Squad captain Diamond Cobb, sophomore management major from Los Angeles, made several attempts to ask Congress for funding to invest in new shoes.
“In SHADES we step, and if we don’t have proper shoes we can get injured,” Cobb said. “Shin Splits are not fun.”
Each amendment that was made for the dance squad failed. International student association decided to give SHADES $65 to go toward new shoes.
