By Matt Clyburn
The Student Government Association Finance Committee held their second meeting of the semester Monday afternoon, a precursor to allocating funds for clubs and organizations on campus for the 2011-12 school year. The deadline for in-person club base budgets is March 11, for all others, March 18.
“Organizations need to start compiling their information and plans for the upcoming school year,” Commuter Senator Erika Dawson-Head said Monday evening. “It is important that people come and present as much detailed information as possible so that the finance committee can begin to make decisions about fund allocation.”
The committee is responsible for all fund requests under $5000 and presenting those requests to the SGA Senate, while requests greater than $5000 are automatically voted on by the entire representative body. The SGA is responsible for $44 of each student’s activity fees, used to “promote and fund student clubs, activities, services and forums for the benefit of the students and their educational opportunities,” according to their website.
Last semester, the SGA created an ad hoc committee to research self-sustainability, meaning that in the future the financial governance organization would cease using student money and only receive funds through various fundraising enterprises and donations. The body will vote soon on whether to keep the ‘SGA Economic Sustainability Committee’ a permanent fixture.
Clubs that failed to apply for budgets in a timely manner last year approach the SGA under extenuating circumstances throughout each fiscal year, so new budgets are often allocated out of contingency funds intended for unforeseen expenses. This has led some to speculate that the organization may go over-budget for this school year.
“It’s a huge concern if we go over-budget because we haven’t been fiscally responsible with our spending,” Senator Nick Alaimo said Monday. “We’ve been striving for consistency in how we vote on funding, but it’s not easy. Clubs need to realize that these decisions aren’t personal, there’s just a lot of money out there for a lot of campus organizations.”
CCSU students are encouraged to review documents relating to the financial business of SGA, all of which will be posted on their website, accessible via the university’s web portal.
Students are also encouraged to attend SGA meetings Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. in the student center’s Bellin Gallery. The SGA Finance Committee meets each Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the student center’s Blue and White room.
