The SGA held a town hall forum in 2011 for student leaders to provide feedback on how the body can reform the student fee allocation process. In February 2013, the body piloted a new system.

The SGA’s launch of an overhauled group funding system had some hiccups last month, members said, but should ultimately lead to more groups receiving the money they need — and not a dollar more.

Under the Student Government Association’s previous system, the body found many groups applied for far too much money and had vague plans for how to use it, while others underestimated how much they would eventually need. As a result, the SGA repeatedly struggled each spring to grant groups as much as they wanted or needed to operate. The new system sets multiple deadlines throughout the semester and takes applications on a rolling basis.

A pilot round of the new system in February yielded 87 budget submissions, said Tali Alter, SGA vice president of financial affairs.

“Sometimes, with a new process, people are like, ‘I am not going to even try,’ but we had a lot of groups actively engaged,” Alter said. “The first round wasn’t perfect, but it gave us insights into things that we should have, and things that we could not possibly have foreseen.”

For example, a 30-day grace period following each deadline is intended to give groups more leeway in planning ahead for events. However, it may clash with some student groups’ schedules because they cannot receive funds during that time. That left some groups without the money they needed to hold programming in Stamp Student Union before late March, as Stamp requires payment for room reservations within 10 days of booking.

Leadership changes in student groups can also pose a challenge, said Nandi McCammon, president of the Caribbean Students Association. To help smooth transitions, she suggested the SGA create a deadline during the summer, after new leadership is in place.

“It is very hard to work with a budget that you did not apply for,” McCammon said.

Ultimately, the deadlines for fall 2013 will be set by the SGA’s new vice president of financial affairs, said Alter, who graduates in December and will not hold the position next year.

“Any decision that we make is geared towards the charge … to distribute the student activities fee fairly and accountably,” she said. “Groups can sometimes see it in a narrow vision, but my job is to see the bigger picture and make sure we are treating every student group fairly.”

Until now, student groups submitted a budget during the spring for the upcoming school year. SGA collected unused funds the following spring and reallocated them in the fall through a secondary application process. Many student groups submitted their budgets before they had a plan for the next year, Alter said.

“The budget process was kind of a joke,” she said. “We wanted to address the lack of accountability … and give student groups a chance to learn from their mistakes and submit a better budget directly next month and not the next year.”

In 2012, a commission studied the flaws of that system to find a solution, Alter said. And over the last few months, the SGA reached out to student groups by offering workshops and mandating meetings to educate them on how the new process will work. For example, groups can use the money they receive to fund programs scheduled between one and five months after each deadline.

So far, group presidents said they appreciate the benefits of rolling applications.

“I think the new process is great,” McCammon said. “It is very efficient and more flexible.”

However, Alexander Ryan, president of the Gamer Symphony Orchestra, said the new system will require more effort from student organizations. Each must come up with exact figures for budget requests, using existing contracts to prove their financial need rather than relying on vague estimates of needed funds.

“I understand where SGA is coming from with their idea of the new system,” Ryan said. “But it is a little more complicated and more work for student groups.”

Though the SGA initially planned three deadlines this spring, there will only be two — the next being this month.

“We wanted to give ourselves time to evaluate,” Alter said. “It was more important to improve the process than to push dates.”