Allocations Committee teaches funding process

Pitt junior Britta Anderson needs $50,000 to buy a boat and other sailing equipment, and on… Pitt junior Britta Anderson needs $50,000 to buy a boat and other sailing equipment, and on Friday afternoon she learned how to request it.

Anderson is in the process of crafting the first budget for Pitt’s new Sailing Club, but had a little trouble getting started.

“It seems pretty simple at first, but when you’re requesting multiple items it can get complicated,” Anderson said of requesting funding from the Student Activities Fund.

Anderson’s confusion was alleviated when she attended Allocations 101, an information session designed to help student groups navigate the allocations process and request funding through the Student Government Board.

“I got some great clarification today, and everyone’s been really helpful,” Anderson said.

The Allocations Committee, a group of appointed students who examine student groups’ funding requests, and members of SGB held the second Allocations 101 session in the William Pitt Union. The half-hour information session, which about 30 students attended, was held just before the deadline for student organizations’ spring budgets on March 2.

Allocations Chair Michael Nites said he plans to continue Allocations 101 and will hold a session next semester before groups’ budgets are due.

The Allocations Committee works with the Student Government Board to allocate the more than $2.3 million in the Student Activity Fund that non-College of General Studies students pay $80 into each semester.

The committee reviews funding requests by student groups both in the form of budgets, which are a mapping out of a group’s requested funds for the coming fiscal year, and supplementals, which are requested on an “as needed” basis.

The Allocations Committee reviews funding requests line by line to be certain that the requests are acceptable to receive funding in accordance with the guidelines in the Allocations Manual.

If the request is under $500, the committee can approve it immediately. If the committee denies a request or the request is more than $500, the Allocations Committee makes a recommendation to the Student Government Board. The Board then votes on whether or not to approve the funding request at their weekly Tuesday night public meeting.

Nites said that groups knowing their SGB liaison is the primary message he wanted students to take away from Allocations 101.

The 12 members of the allocations committee serve as student group liaisons, who are tasked with assisting their assigned student groups in applying for funds and advocating for their groups during allocations meetings. Each of Pitt’s 350 student organizations has a liaison assigned to it based on its place in the alphabet.

Allocations Committee member Alexander Majchrzak said he sits down with the groups he is a liaison for during his office hours, reads through their requests and checks their math. He said he does anything he needs to do to know how he should vote when the request comes before the committee.

Each request needs seven out of 12 votes in the allocations meeting to get approved.

“I like to go into all the meetings with a good amount of knowledge,” Majchrzak said.

Majchrzak’s job gets tough when a group requests funding for something that falls within a gray area in the Allocations Manual. According to the Allocations Manual, the committee can fund for certain things like lodging or facility rental, and not others like decorations or food.

“There are many factors we have to consider,” Majchrzak said. “It can get kind of tough.”

According to Nites, the confusion about what the Student Government Board can and cannot fund is one of the major problems that trump students when requesting funding, and it is a big reason for having a program like Allocations 101.

A large portion of Nites’ presentation on Friday was entitled “Request for This, Not for That,” where Nites recommended that student leaders study which things SGB is allowed to pay for and request only for them, supplementing the rest of their costs with private fundraising.

Students who want to know more about how the Student Activity Fund is spent can find the Allocations Manual and the Allocations 101 presentation online at the allocations section of SGB’s website, www.pitt.edu/~sgb/allocations.html. Or they can visit the SGB office in room 848 of the William Pitt Union.