The SGA Finance Committee has allocated about $1.2 million to student groups and didn’t fulfill what one committee member claimed was a promise to pay for groups’ air travel.
The amount was roughly equal to what was doled out last year, but the total amount is only 48 percent of what groups had requested. The finance committee hands out the money based on strict guidelines, and groups often feel shortchanged by the process. Groups can appeal to the committee and to the full Student Government Association legislature before decisions are finalized.
For the first time this year, groups could apply for airfare funding, which had never previously been an option. Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg said if groups could provide adequate proof they were attending a conference or competition more than 500 miles from College Park, they could qualify for airfare funding. But of the $260,000 requested for airfare, the finance committee only allocated a quarter of that.
Committee member Tanya Kapoor said both she and student groups were given the impression that applying for airfare funds meant applying to have the full cost covered, which she said was never an option considering the amount of money available.
The price of the requested airfare for each was first adjusted down to the lowest possible fare as listed on Kayak.com and then slashed in half.
“This is the first semester we started giving airfare to groups, and it’s basically an empty promise: We’ll give you airfare, but we’ll cut it twice,” Kapoor said. “You were bleeding from both sides, basically.”
But Steinberg said his aim was to subsidize, and he never promised to fully cover the costs of flying.
“The guidelines were revised for the possibility of requesting airfare,” he said. “I wish I could make those promises, but I’ve been doing this for a while … there’s always a deficit situation.”
Steinberg said after making an initial round of cuts, the committee still needed to slash $722,000 to reconcile it with the money available to dole out. That amount was cut in two series of slashes.
The first was a round of line-item cuts in which specific parts of student groups’ requests were cut across the board. The second was a series of cuts ranging from 10 to 30 percent of a group’s budget, depending on how much had been allocated up to that point.
Groups who had been allocated less than $2,000 were not subjected to the second round of cuts. But they did suffer from the line-item cuts: 50 percent of bus, conference, contractual services or dues and fees requests was eliminated, as was 15 percent of any money for space rental and securities and salaries requests.
“To reconcile the deficit, we made across-the-board cuts,” Steinberg said. “We wanted to protect smaller organizations as much as we could.”
Steinberg also said that four members of the 13-member committee were not present when they decided to make both the line-item and graduated cuts. Kapoor argued that made the allocation process unfair.
“They were notified that we were having deliberations and, they were expected to be in attendance,” Steinberg said. “Despite the fact that the entire committee was not present, there is no doubt in my mind that the committee was able to ensure the integrity of the process.”
Steinberg said the committee reserved $68,000 for the student group appeals process, $44,000 of which is pending referendum approval of MaryPIRG’s request to be exempt from the SGA’s rule against student groups funding student salaries.
Students will vote on a referendum for the exemption next Tuesday and Wednesday along with SGA elections candidates. Depending on its passage, the legislature will then vote on whether to approve it or to reallocate the $44,000 on April 28.
Money for fall’s secondary allocations will not be calculated until June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
“It’s unfortunate that the cuts were necessary to help close this deficit in tough economic times,” Steinberg said. “Ideally speaking, we want to cover all the costs. … unfortunately with the resources currently available, we aren’t able to do so.”
aisaacs@umdbk.com
