Leaders of student organizations are preparing to file their requests for allocations, and this year Maria Rossi, Student Government Association vice president and English literature junior, vows to make the process easier.
This year, SGA has a budget of $181,639, but will allocate $62,000. In addition to this, there will be $5,000 for appeals. If an organization needs additional funds, they will be able to file an appeal.
The allocations committee is comprised of the four college presidents and two senators-at-large.
Rossi added another member, Brittani McClain, psychology pre-med senior, from the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences due to her experience in the allocations process. Jay Alqotob, accounting sophomore and director of finance for SGA, comprises the committee.
Last year’s process revealed there were many doubts as to how to fill out the allocations packet. This year, SGA will have two informational sessions where they will go over the correct way to fill them out. They will also be checking the packets to see if they have been filled out correctly. If not, they will be correcting them there.
“The process is basically going online and printing out all the documents,” Rossi said. “InfoPacket is the form you have to fill out where you prioritize your events and then you have to go through the violations.”
Altogether there are three pages that need to be filled out. If something is left out, then it will not be funded. For this reason, Rossi wants people to take their time and think about what they want to be funded.
“There are seven categories and whatever you want to be funded must fall under one of them,” Rossi said.
The seven categories are: community service projects; student programs and performances; educational or speaker programs; achievement or competition programs; equipment; uniforms and costumes; conferences or travel and publications or journals.
Another novelty is the way in which the packet is submitted. In the past, the organization would turn in 10 copies of the allocations packet. This year, student organizations will only be required to submit one hard copy packet and one online version. Organizations are encouraged to keep a copy, which they can reuse it another year.
All chartered organizations on campus need to file for allocations.
To be eligible to receive funds, a representative from the organization must go to one of three allocations meetings or the house of representatives meeting. In addition to this, everything that needs to be funded should be included in the request — if not it won’t be funded.
Funding for events require a justification. The allocations committee will then evaluate the packets and decisions will be made accordingly. If an organization wants to bring a guest speaker, then a W-9 form will be necessary.
Contrary to previous years, SGA will not be funding social events, food or business materials.
“If it’s a party or social, then it probably won’t get funded,” Rossi said.
Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]
