Organizations score funding

The+Quidditch+team+competes+at+its+regional+competition+in+Texas.++The+team%E2%80%99s+trip+was+one+of+the+events+that+received+funding+through+the+Student+Government+Association%E2%80%99s+allocations+process.

Courtesy of Caitlin Page

The Quidditch team competes at its regional competition in Texas. The team’s trip was one of the events that received funding through the Student Government Association’s allocations process.

Daniela Chavez

The Student Government Association and the finance committee voted to implement and enforce a new 21-day rule for allocations.

The new rule was decided upon on Feb. 9, and states that all paperwork must be submitted 21 days prior to an event that needs funding to ensure reservations can be made within enough time before the event.

Allison Rogers, SGA’s director of communications, said that the finance committee goes through a set of established guidelines for allocations and chooses to approve or deny a submission based on those rules.

“Then, they take a majority vote that excludes the director of finance, because he remains impartial towards the process,” Rogers said.

Organizations on campus are required to fill out an online form on OrgSync where they state how much funding is needed, describe the event and attend the finance meeting to discuss the event with the finance committee. Organizations usually hear back within 24 hours if their request is approved or denied.

If a request is sent to SGA without proper documentation, Matthew Moldtham, director of finance, gets in touch with the president of the organization in order to receive the documentations on time.

This spring semester, Loyola’s Quidditch team received funding from SGA. Caitlin Page, history junior and the team’s president, said the team’s trip to regionals required funding.

“We are using the funds for hotel rooms that we are required to stay in by The United States Quidditch Association rules and for gas money to get us there and back. Any other cost for the tournament is basically paid by the team or per individual,” Page said.

Page said that the allocation for regionals is the largest funding the team requests besides the allocation for the World Cup.

SGA also sets aside funds every semester for individual student needs.

Students have individual access to software, graduate test reimbursements and can get up to $100 for software they need to purchase for classes or graduate admission tests.

Caroline Welsh, criminal justice junior, said many students do not know that they can take advantage of these funds.

“I’ve been in this school for three years and had no idea that I could have these options available to me through SGA,” Welsh said. “I’m pretty sure most of my friends don’t know either, but since I have a year left I’ll definitely be looking into that now.”