As funding deadline approaches, a look at last year’s cuts

It’s time for student organizations to prepare funding requests for next year.    

Student fees this year cost $32.11 a credit hour, a 66-cent increase from last year. Despite the increase in fees, SGA significantly cut several organizations’ budgets.

Student organizations funded by WSU need to request a dollar amount from the Student Government Association by Monday, Feb. 13.

Student fees allocated by SGA fund several on-campus clubs and organizations, including The Sunflower. Student government passed a $9 million budget for this academic year.

Educational Opportunity Fund requests, which include grants for underrepresented students and student mentoring programs, are due no later than Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The largest total cuts were to Campus Recreation ($2,030,861), the Rhatigan Student Center ($148,000), Shocker Sound ($90,297), The Sunflower ($53,000) and the College of Fine Arts Programming ($43,000).

The only organization that received more funding than it requested was SafeRide, which received an additional $61,000 on top of its original $19,000 budget.

Several organizations’ budgets were unchanged, including funds used by SGA, which was criticized last spring for not cutting the president and vice president’s salaries while budgets were slashed.

WSU student government leaders receive some of the highest salaries in the country, and handle one of the largest budgets of any student government association in the country.