The SGA is considering making changes in its funding procedures that would increase communication with student groups, following a meeting attended by fewer than 10 student group leaders last night.
Leaders expressed their frustrations with the Student Government Association funding process yesterday at the first Finance Feedback Forum. The lack of knowledge as to how groups should properly create their budgets was the main concern, leaders said.
As a result of the meeting, the SGA finance committee is considering implementing more guidelines and budget meetings.
While some headway was made in the meeting, the low turnout at the forum makes the job of the SGA much harder, said Vice President of Financial Affairs Daozhong Jin.
“It’s really premature right now to see what changes we would actually institute,” Jin said. “But without the groups, there is no way to get feedback and amend the process. Groups are unhappy, and I’m not sure what I can do if I don’t have feedback.”
It is the responsibility of student groups – not just the SGA – to get involved in amending the finance process, finance committee member Erik Lowery said.
“Apparently, none of the people that found it challenging found it challenging enough to show up for this,” he said.
This fall, student groups requested almost $700,000 in second-round funding, but the SGA had only about $200,000 to distribute, causing a backlash from student leaders depending on allocations from the SGA.
As a result of decreased funds, the finance committee was also forced to tighten its requirements, requesting more documentation from student groups and giving less attention to budgets that did not follow proper SGA guidelines.
Confusion on how to create a successful budget was Latino Student Union treasurer Iris Ferrufino’s main concern with the finance process.
“I think it is a little bit unclear,” Ferrufino said. “I had a lot of questions about it. When I see my budget cut significantly, I think, ‘How do I fund these events?'”
As a first-year treasurer, Ferrufino said she felt she had no explanations from the SGA about documentation and other details of the process, but still had funding cut this fall because of previous group actions.
“It’s not fair to be held accountable by what happened two to three years ago,” Ferrufino said.
To provide more guidance, the SGA is considering giving groups examples of successful budgets and proper documentation, holding one-on-one meetings between finance committee members and student groups and creating a series of deadlines for budget forms, Jin said.
But Lowery said these changes should not give student groups the assumption the SGA will do their work for them.
“You can’t expect to throw something together at the last minute for the whole year and have it be successful,” Lowery said. “If you want your group to succeed, you need to take responsibility for your group.”
Lowery said no matter how many changes are made, student groups should not operate under the assumption they will receive all requrested funding.
“I feel the more we help these groups, the more they’ll ask for, and we’ll have to cap them in some other way,” he said. “They’ll ask for $2.5 million, and we only have $1.5 million to hand out.”
Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at roxanadbk@gmail.com.
