This semester the Student Government Association will allocate $70,000 in student activity fees to organizations. The allocations committee bears the burden of fairly allocating these funds by deciding what requests are more important than others.
This year conferences consumed much of the budget, and academic journals paid the price, being cut in half across the board. I was lucky this year that SGA believed my organizations were of more importance than others, granting them more of your money to promote their causes.
That’s right. The Loyola College Libertarians, of which I am president, received about $1,800 of your money to promote the Libertarian party and values. Does this bother anyone? I should hope so.
Tulane does not fund political organizations, but I do not believe this is enough. One SGA guideline requires organizations to aim for at least 10 percent of the cost when fund-raising with your money. That means Etcetera’s Gayla can throw a scholarship event costing about $6,000 with the goal of raising $3,000. However, SGA does not fund scholarships, so simply giving Gayla $3,000 is not acceptable. This was the case last year.
These are only a few examples of SGA’s inability to responsibly allocate funds. The only way to properly allocate your money is if you allocate it. Of course simply eliminating the student fees that go to allocations would never fly, so I propose a compromise.
Those who donate to the United Way have the option to choose which organizations the donation goes to. A packet is provided with a short paragraph on each organization and why tit needs funding. I’m willing to bet if you get to choose where your money goes, you’ll be a lot happier with the final allocation of your money.
The committee could still review paragraphs and reject requests that violate regulations. All accounts could still go through SGA. Nothing would change except the actual allocation of your money.
There are a few problems, but I argue they are problems we already have. Under the United Way system, the dance team would not receive sufficient funds for a competition every year. Under the allocations committee, there is no guarantee that the dance team will get its money each year either. In fact, they’ve never received so much before. If the competition is that essential, it should have permanent funds for it through a line item or athletic fees. Unused funds can be saved for the trip next year.
Some academic journals might fail under this system. However, if a journal is only of interest to 20 or so students it probably should not be printed anyway. If it is essential to a department or the university, it shouldn’t be at the mercy of SGA in the first place. Revisions almost got cut completely last year, and Readers Response received too few funds to print this year.
Other strategies include LOYAG’s cookbook where a lack of funds simply meant LOYAG would have to take a risk and sell it. If no one buys it, maybe it shouldn’t be printed. This type of information is hidden under the SGA system, and we have funded unwanted projects for years.
The United Way system allows you to know your money is not going to fund political views you do not agree with, wasteful events or organizations you have no interest in. SGA does not know better than you what the best use of your money is.
