Student groups seeking additional funding should have an easier time finding answers to budgetary and finance questions after the SGA Finance Committee implemented a new advisory process this semester.
The new process is more individualized and has contributed to a 25 percent drop in the number of student groups appealing their budgets to the finance committee. Only one group — the Student Government Association — is appealing to the full SGA legislature.
The SGA is charged with divvying up hundreds of thousands of dollars among student groups each year. In the past, student-group leaders would go to a mandatory meeting with the SGA vice president of finance. The entire Finance Committee would then hold two optional workshops, in which group leaders could get more specific advice, but the meetings felt rushed and only a few minutes could be spent on each group.
Under the new system, each of the finance committee’s 15 members has been assigned 20 to 25 student groups to work with, and each group can receive individual attention as needed.
The new process fulfills one of SGA President Steve Glickman’s campaign promises, and officials believe it’s responsible for the decline in student group funding appeals. Last fall, about 20 groups appealed to the finance committee, and four appealed to the legislature.
Despite an increase in budget applications from 145 to 189, only 15 groups appealed to the committee this year.
“I thought assigning individual members to the specific organizations would be more effective,” SGA Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg said. “It allows organizations to meet when it’s flexible for them, and it allows representatives to give them more personalized attention.”
The finance process has occasionally provoked controversy in the past because student groups are often upset when denied. For example, this year, groups requested $876,376, but the SGA could only allocate $471,873.
Under the old system, organizations that made minor mistakes didn’t have a chance to correct them before submitting their applications. But with additional and individualized guidance, committee member Brian Toll said the number of mistakes has decreased.
“Things like insufficient documentation or breakdown of fund requests used to cost many groups a lot of funding,” said Toll, a junior finance and accounting major. “Of course, these things still happen. But [the new process] has helped immensely.”
Jewish Student Union President Eric Merin said the new system made it simpler to communicate with the finance committee.
“When you only have the vice president of finance to ask questions to, it puts a lot of pressure on him to communicate the needs of hundreds of student groups,” Merin said. “[Now] it’s not just one person on top. Creating a system that’s more accessible also makes it more transparent.”
But Toll said many of his allotted student groups didn’t take advantage of the new process. Out of his 25 groups, he said only seven actually contacted him to meet up.
“It’s a shame more people didn’t meet with me,” Toll said. “If it were up to me, I’d like to make it a requirement. It’s really only going to help them, and it puts a name and a face to the process for us.”
Steinberg said he would consider making the workshops mandatory, but first he plans to survey student- group leaders by the end of the semester to get their feedback.
“It’s something we can consider,” Steinberg said. “But it’s not always the best practice to force someone to do things. We want student groups to want to come to us with questions.”
eopenchowski at umdbk dot com
