Wichita State’s Student Government Association approved $11.5 million in student fees requests last Wednesday, drawing SGA’s involvement in the process to a close.

“I feel pretty proud of the decisions that the Senate has made,” SGA Treasurer Tessie Arambula said. “I was very pleased with … the fact that we were able to justify every decision that we made with thorough evidence and not just hearsay and opinion.”

The increased budget, which includes a 4 percent salary increase for unclassified employees, now goes to WSU President John Bardo for approval. If he approves it, the budget will be sent to the Kansas Board of Regents for official approval.

Although the Senate discussed each request, it only made one change, which was increasing the amount for SGA allocations from $10,000 to $30,000. This account is used to fund Recognized Student Organizations.

SGA shut down organizational funding for the remainder of the fiscal year last month due to the $40,000 allocation being spent for the year. SGA has money in the reserves for organizational funding, and many SGA members wish to continue funding organizations for this semester using this money. However, Arambula believes continued funding will deplete reserves too quickly and give organizations the false notion that SGA has unlimited funding.

“We don’t want to have one semester where we go and spend wildly $60,000 of our reserves just because people are asking for it. People will never stop asking for it,” Arambula said. “If we keep giving, they keep coming.”

SGA is currently turning down any requests. Arambula said she would consider opening it back up if the Senate can get a new electronic funding process operating to make the process in general more streamlined.

Although the decision was not made to re-open organizational funding, it was decided that the allocation shouldn’t be decreased if the amount of organizational funding needed is increasing. The amount was brought from $10,000 up to the $30,000 they requested last year.

Now that SGA has accepted the student fees budget, their part in the process is finished. Arambula said the relief that comes from being done is “short-lived.”

“Staying on top of that (organization funding) is going to be my first priority now,” Arambula said.

The meeting took place two weeks after SGA’s Student Fees Committee first proposed the budget to the Senate. These two weeks gave SGA members time to gather information on the budget changes and prepare for debate on the budget at the following meeting.