SGA out of organization funding
As of this month, the Student Government Association no longer has money to give to student organizations.
Although many may see this as daunting and disastrous, Coordinator of Student Organizations and Civic Engagement Lyston Skerritt disagrees.
Skerritt has been revamping efforts with student organizations since he started at the office of Student Involvement last year. He has been teaching groups about the process of SGA funding and telling them whom to go to with their requests.
“Over the last semester and this semester so far, we have conducted four workshops on organizational funding,” Skerritt said.
The fact that SGA has run out of money for student groups means his efforts are paying off.
“[Lyston’s] been making…all 178 organizations aware that SGA funding exists and that has created great opportunities for them, but less opportunities for those who generally apply later in the year,” SGA Treasurer Tessie Arambula said.
Groups who receive funding later in the year may be caught off guard by the sudden increase in groups requesting money.
“All these organizations that never knew we existed before suddenly are putting in tons of requests and the money is going a lot quicker,” Arambula said. “We have had so many more organizational funding requests in the past month than we did almost [all of them] last spring semester combined.”
SGA will allocate money via electronic funding methods and using OrgSync and Facebook to notify organizations about when they should consider submitting requests during the next fiscal year. Although they will not increase the amount given to groups next year, Arambula realizes that change could be necessary.
“The combination of advertising and letting people know we exist through Student Involvement and switching to electronic funding; making the process much easier and quicker, we have no idea what the results will be,” Arambula said. “We will make whatever changes we can to [deal with] that.”
Although this could spell out complete disaster for some student organizations, Arambula offers a bit of hope.
“If organizations desperately need help, I would encourage them to talk to [Vice President for Campus Life and University Relations] Wade Robinson to get a supplemental fee request in,” she said.
Thirty-five groups received funding from SGA with the average request being $712 last fall. SGA is allowed to dole out $40,000 this year to student organizations.
For students looking to voice their opinion, SGA’s next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the wRECk Center where they will be discussing student fee allocations.
