After the Budget and Allocations committee ran out of travel funds, Student Government made a series of changes to the club funding process.
A new Club Budget Committee will work with Club Alliance to handle a $60,000 club budget. Former Student Body President Carlo Fassi appointed his successor, Joe Turner as chairman in mid-February.
“The CBC gives student organizations the opportunity to receive more funding upfront so that they can plan their year ahead of time,” said Chris Brady, Director of Analytics & Research and CBC member.
Brady said clubs can request $2,000 total, between the Travel Request Fund and the CBC. The total was adjusted from the former $2,500 limit in response to the increase in club funding requests this year. This change gives 200+ registered student organizations an equal amount of request funds under the new budget. The club budget will be divided into two segments: one with $48,000 to the CBC and the other $12,000 to other club funding requests.
Turner said that he has proposed a new TRF budget for the next fiscal year so that travel requests are not a problem students and SG have to deal with again. “Travel funding, I hope, should be getting a little bit better next year.”
The Budget and Allocations Committee set the TRF budget to $40,000.
This should eliminate situations like one early in Spring 2014, when the Potter’s Guild’s travel request was line-item vetoed. Due to lack of funds and travel request review running on a first come, first serve basis, they were allocated $1,949 of the $2,500 they requested for a trip to the National Council for Education in Ceramic Arts in Milwaukee, Wis. Kaity Asomos, Vice President of the Potter’s Guild, said two students dropped the trip when funding was cut.
“Some students are so dedicated they have taken to only eating ramen until May so they can fund themselves.”
Asomos also said she thinks the system needs to be more transparent. She said SG needs to be more vocal about how long the process is and how hard it has become to get approved.
With this new system, clubs who know they need funding for similar events ahead of time can place requests before the Club Budget Committee in Spring. This way, the budget can be used when clubs find a travel opportunity to national events and competitions. Though this redesigned budget system still allows clubs to request budget boosts throughout the semester, transitioning to the new system gives clubs access to funds estimated and requested beforehand without the hassle of paperwork.