Wichita State Student Government Association is reviewing all the student fee-funded entities for the next budget cycle, breaking from its typical procedure for allocating funds.
SGA is in charge of allocating a portion of student fees to various student organizations and associations on campus. Each year, SGA’s finance commission — made up of SGA members — hears from groups and services funded by student fees to decide the budget allocation for each one.
Last year, the university faced a $929,000 shortfall because student headcount was lower than anticipated for the 2024-25 school year, causing the student fee budget to go into a deficit for fiscal year 2026. An error in the way some students were categorized resulted in an overestimation of the amount those students would pay in fees, compounding the shortfall. Now, for FY 2027, the budget has leveled out again, according to current Student Body President Jia Wen Wang. Organizations that had their hearings last year are operating on a lower budget than normal because of this shortfall.
SGA typically sees student fee-funded entities on a biannual A/B cycle, with half being in group A and the other half in group B. Each year, the SGA finance commission reviews either group A or group B — depending on which group’s turn it is — to create those entities’ budgets for the next two years.
Following the shortfall, the finance commission asked the Student Senate to invoke Chapter 5 of the Student Fees Statute, which allows the finance commission to hear from all student fee entities when needed, instead of only group A or group B. The Student Senate voted to approve the invoking of Chapter 5 of the Student Fees Statute.
Last year, Wang was the student body treasurer, the leader of the finance commission. She said the finance commission at the time also decided to invoke Chapter 5 of the Student Fees Statute to hear from all student fee entities so that the effects of the shortfall were divided among both group A and B rather than disproportionately impacting half while leaving the rest unscathed.
If the finance commission had seen the groups as normal, only group A would have continued with their reduced budgets because it was group B’s year to be re-evaluated, according to Wang.
The A/B cycle will continue as normal after this year’s hearings, according to Wang.
The finance commission will start reviewing student fees in the spring semester.
The Student Senate meets every Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. A recording of the Nov. 12 meeting is available via the Student Government Association’s YouTube channel.
