Although budget cuts aren’t as steep as last year, several student groups received grave news about the future of their organizations this week when the SGA doled out funding for next year.

The Student Government Association only has about $451,000 to allocate, but more than 230 student groups requested nearly $2.5 million in funding, according to Vice President of Financial Affairs David Berlin. On average, student group budgets received a mandatory 31 percent cut from the SGA – a much smaller reduction compared to last year’s budget fiasco, when groups received less than a quarter of their overall requested funding.

The Terrapin Ski and Snowboard Club and the Air Force ROTC faced the sharpest cuts. The former requested more than $188,000 in funding and saw its budget pared down to about $11,000, while the latter received only 2 percent of its requested amount, most of which would have gone toward office renovations, according to Berlin.

Leaders of the Help Center, WMUC Radio and MaryPIRG – which faced some of the worst cuts last year – all plan to appeal to the finance committee for additional funding. If group members still disagree with the funding amount, they can appeal the full legislature at its meeting next Wednesday.

Many members said this appeals process is a last-ditch attempt to ensure their group can continue as an on-campus organization.

“We can still remain to function, but it’s still worrisome,” said Phil Mulliken, WMUC business manager. “I don’t want the group to bleed dry. I’m thinking four to five years down the road, and if we continue to cut, cut, cut, we can’t sustain.”

Margaret-Ellen Johnson, the president of the Help Center, said her group received only $1,383 after requesting $2,955. She said the group needs $2,400 to cover phone bills, which is fundamental to running the group’s 24-hour crisis hotline.

“I understand this is a really hard position the SGA’s put in,” Johnson said. “Hopefully there was just an error somewhere and we just slipped through the cracks.”

Many student leaders noted that while the cuts are still steep, they aren’t as serious as last year when 15 groups appealed to the full body – which had $50,000 set aside for the appeals process – for more funding. However, after voting to allocate additional money to 13 of the groups, legislators realized they had over-budgeted by $20,000 and had to reallocate the funds.

MaryPIRG was at the center of last year’s funding crisis and seems largely in the same situation this year. Chapter President David Bransfield said his group requested $62,425 and only received about $1,100. He said the group needs at least $43,000 to fund its two paid salary positions; these staff members run the group’s internship program, which currently serves about 30 student interns.

“Cutting MaryPIRG is kind of like cutting a class,” Bransfield said. “We would not be able to function as a group that can offer class credit.”

Last year, the group requested $60,000 but only received $4,000. At the appeals hearing, it received an additional $42,793, but many student leaders questioned whether one group should get such a big chunk of appeals funding, especially since it goes toward funding non-student staff members.

After last year’s funding controversy, student leaders said this year seems to be going more smoothly.

“I’m glad that groups aren’t going to be put through the same ringer,” Bransfield said. “I think students were a lot smarter this year. They were prepared. There were more fundraisers.”

Berlin said this year’s cuts are less steep because more groups have co-sponsored programs to save on costs and refrained from requesting more money than they needed.

“I definitely saw it as a positive funding year for groups and a big step in the direction towards accountability and transparency in the finance system,” Berlin wrote in an email. “Groups understood more. We had better budgets with less mistakes.”

Berlin noted the SGA will also not fund any summer programs this year, like money to fund WMUC’s telephone lines during the vacation, because students pay the student activity fee with tuition for the regular academic year, which does not cover the summer.

Berlin said the finance committee used a similar system for allocating funds as it did last year, and groups who received less than $1,000 were not subjected to mandatory cuts. He also noted highest funded groups received larger cuts than lower funded groups.

SGA members hope the funding process will be far more effective next year. Last semester, SGA President Kaiyi Xie tasked a commission of student group leaders to explore how to improve the way the mandatory student activity fee – which every undergraduate pays and the SGA uses to fund groups – is allocated. Berlin said the commission will present their proposals to him and Xie next week, and the SGA will hold a town hall forum on these solutions before the end of the semester.

“It is the last thing I will do before I leave office – have a process in which students get the money they need, when they need it in a fair and equitable way,” Berlin wrote.

However, some student group leaders said they are starting to look toward alternative options.

“I’m starting to think the SGA is not a reliable source of funding anymore,” Mulliken said.

villanueva@umdbk.com