To the editors:
On Feb. 6, the Student Government Association Budget Allocations committee met for over 12 hours to discuss how to best allocate the $75,000 allotted for student organizations in the SGA budget. This semester, student organizations requested around $235,000 in funding. In comparison, only $138,000 was requested last semester. This required the committee to deliberate on the best and most fair way to make up for the $160,000 difference in what was requested and what was actually available.
Six organizations requested over $10,000 this semester. The most money requested from a single organization was $17,963.08, the least was $265.70.
Almost all student organizations will see a drastic difference between what they requested and what was actually funded. The committee was impressed by the wide array of events these groups wanted to bring to the Loyola community; however, it is utterly impossible to fulfill everyone’s wishes.
After making cuts for technical violations (mistakes in paperwork, etc.) and policy (requests for things that SGA does not fund), the committee decided to fund only $150 for registration fees per person, only $1,000 per organization for equipment, only one speaker/performer per organization, travel expenses for only the highest priority request per organization, and finally, only the first two priority requests for organizations.
Each round of cuts affected an average of 10 organizations. Nevertheless, the Committee found itself over budget.
In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of chartered organizations. This means more limited, thinly distributed funds must cover a larger number of organizations. This semester was also the first time club sports were funded through the allocations process, which increased the competition for funds and allowed club sports access to greater amounts of funding than previously possible, but also further increased competition for funds available to each organization and club sport.
It is important to remember that these funds come from student fees assessed to each student. An increase in the amount available to allocate to student organizations would require an increase in the student fee paid each semester. It is difficult to balance the needs of every organization that applies for allocations, especially with such a limited amount of funds available and the large number of requests for highly ambitious projects. This is why we argued for more than 12 hours over the fairest way to distribute these funds to as many organizations as possible.
We understand the frustration with the astonishing decrease in funding per organization from last semester; however, we ask that you attempt to understand that we tried our best to ensure that the limited amount of funding was allocated in the best way possible.
Sincerely,
SGA Budget Allocations Committee
