Student organization representatives crowded into the Student Government Association’s meeting on Wednesday night to argue for their funding. The evening mirrored a similar situation the year prior.
Wichita State’s Student Senate was expected to vote on how much each organization received, but that decision has been put off as more funding became available. It could be at least another week until a final decision is made.
Each year, student organizations wanting to receive funding from the Student Government’s portion of student fees must submit a request and go before the association to explain what the money will be used for. SGA then determines organization funding based on the requests and how much funding is available.
The Senate voted to pull $75,000 out of a special projects fund, which was created last spring to allow SGA to pay for projects such as renovations to the Rhatigan Student Center and any other projects that fall outside of normal funding.
It is funded by student fees like most of SGA’s budget. Student Body President Kylee Hower said the fund currently has around $2 million including the $75,000 that will be pulled for appropriations.
Hower encouraged the senators to vote in favor of the additional funding.
“Every year, we try to work with what we have in the appropriations process, and the harsh reality is that most organizations don’t leave happy,” Hower said, addressing the Senate. “The hope is always that at the very minimum, these organizations can have enough funding to operate, but we cannot always achieve that.”
Most student organizations that visited the meeting said the recommended funding for their organization was insufficient.
Last year, the Senate faced a similar deficit and pulled $15,000 from SGA’s reserves to supplement the funding.
Hower argued that the additional money was necessary to allow the organizations to operate.
“I implore the members of this body to remind yourselves why you are sitting in these seats here now,” she said. “Is it to serve your own personal agendas, or is it to serve the students who elected you and represent your constituencies?
Although the Senate decided to allocate the extra money, not all senators were in favor of the idea. Sen. Kian Williams, who uses they/them pronouns, argued that the decision was not enough to fix a larger issue in the process of dividing up funding.
“I won’t be sad if this does pass, but I’ll be voting against this bill for many reasons, primarily due to what I consider to be a largely failing process,” Williams said. “There are many issues communicated during the process of deliberating and finalizing appropriation and recommendations, and I cannot justify adding an additional 75 grand to a process that is simply not functioning properly.”
Williams said that appropriations commissioners were not given the proper time to prepare and make their decisions
“At this point, I am calling for a full independent audit of SGA and SGA-related finances,” Williams said. “For too long, SGA discretionary funding has been out of control and hidden from students.”
The livestream of the meeting can be viewed at tinyurl.com/48vetj3h.
