By Concord Staff
A new year and semester is right around the corner, which means new budget allocations from the Student Government Association to the Registered Student Organizations will be made. Many people have questions regarding how SGA distributes funds to individual RSOs on campus.
Crystal Bhagwandin, a senior representative for SGA said: “The [budget] meeting is open and the entire process is extremely transparent.”
RSOs are required to draft a budget every semester and submit it to SGA for review. SGA will then either approve the budget, deny it, or request revisions to be made. RSOs can change their budget and have it reviewed again. RSOs must itemize all requested funds and sort them into specific categories.
Although the process may seem complicated, it is fairly straightforward. For example, an RSO could include a total allowance for food of $700 in their budget. The Finance Committee will meet prior to allocating the amounts and will sometimes set a cap for each category. If they have a $500 cap on food allowances for all RSOs, they would deny the $700 and only offer the $500. The RSO may challenge SGA’s decisions during the appeal process, but the appeal is not guaranteed to be successful.
Setting a cap for itemized budget categories is a good way to keep budgets fair for all RSOs. This can help prevent RSOs, who may have had their budgets reduced, from feeling that they were mistreated during the allocation process.
“After the budgets are approved for whatever amount they requested, they can meet with the Finance Committee to ask potential questions,” Bhagwandin said. RSOs are welcome to come to an SGA appeals meeting and request additional funds if they are not happy with their allocated amounts.
The majority of budgets are approved by SGA, with the exception of itemized expenses that have caps set. Some RSOs, Hillel for example, came to the appeals meeting on November 17th and were granted additional funds. Nick Rudisill, finance chair for SGA, is involved with the decision-making process for allocations.
“Basically, we try to go through and give everyone a fair amount,” Rudisill said. “If it is food or T-shirts, we try to give everyone an equal amount based on the numbers in their organization, whether its is the number of members or those in attendance at an event. Usually the larger organizations will get a larger allocations.”
SGA also bases budgets on what an organization currently has in its budget.
“If they haven’t used all of their funding from this semester usually we will deduct that amount [from their proposed budget] because it will roll over to the next semester,” Rudisill said. “If they are going to use all of that we’ll typically go through and see how likely the [expense] is to happen.”
The Student Government Association does its best to approve the budgets that are within reason and has the best interest in mind for all of the RSOs. SGA wants the various RSOs to have the adequate funds they need. However, sometimes budgets have to be cut or reorganized to allow fairness between RSOs on campus. Sometimes it is just not possible for SGA to provide all the money RSO request.
Travel expenses are actually a separate expense that is not included in the main budget proposed by the RSOs. These are submitted and reviewed at a separate time. RSOs also have to know how much that they will have to spend on each individual event they have planned for the semester before they can actually host the event.
This can make it difficult for RSOs sometimes because it is hard to plan an event that far in advance because so many things are subject to change. It is important to SGA to have a very accurate calculation before approving a budget. RSOs sometimes get frustrated with SGA, but fiscal responsibility is very important and needs to be carefully considered.