SGB grants record-high allocations amid budget concerns, data shows

In recent Student Government Board meetings, board members have expressed concerns about increased allocations spending and whether the $900,000 budget will last the whole school year. Data compiled by The Pitt News shows while SGB is granting allocations at an unprecedented rate, the denial rate is the highest since its budget increased in 2019.

As of Feb. 5, the board has allocated $499,312.09 across 74 requests. At this same time last year, the board allocated $308,998.22 across 67 requests, about $190,000 less than this year.

SGB’s $900,000 allocations budget is funded by the Student Activities Fee, which costs full-time undergraduates $100 and part-time students $30 per semester, excluding students in the College of General Studies. Student organizations use the allocated money to hold events, attend conferences and fund various activities.

“The amount of money we have to give out has been set at $900,000, even though our number of requests has almost doubled in the last decade,” SGB President Sarah Mayer said. “It’s been a struggle to give [funds] as generously as we wish we could. At the same time, we don’t want to run out of money.” 

The data sourced from The Pitt News covers allocations requests that SGB heard at public meetings over the past six years. The allocations committee hears requests under $2,000 privately. It is unclear how many requests under $2,000 the allocations committee has granted this year.

Allocations Chair Nicole Zhang said requests have increased because student organizations have decreased their fundraising efforts.

“Clubs who have found ways to self-fund their events in the past are now looking at allocations as their first resource,” Zhang said. “The goal of allocations is to distribute money fairly and equitably, but we have to scrutinize requests heavily when we have limited funds.”

Vice Chair of Logistics for the Allocations Committee Stephanie Yau said that requests for honorarium allocations, money typically used to pay special event guests, have also increased in recent years.

“The allocations committee decided last year to implement an honorarium cap on all student organizations to mitigate the issue,” Yau said. “However, this issue seems to persist.”

Six weeks into the fall 2024 semester, Mayer expressed concerns about the depleting allocations budget. By then, the board had allocated $196,473.44 at public meetings.

“We’re trying to meet the [allocations] demand, but we’re already kind of on track to run out of money,” Mayer said at the board’s Oct. 8 meeting. “I’ve been speaking to [the] administration about ways to accommodate the sheer number of requests we’re seeing.”

At the same meeting, board member Andrew Elliott said large requests will be reviewed with “more scrutiny” moving forward.

“We have $900,000 to give out every year. It sounds like a lot of money, but there are over 800 clubs at Pitt,” Elliott said on Oct. 8. “Continuing to fund these large dollar amounts may become more challenging for us specifically because of the quantity of requests we have.”

At the end of the fiscal year, any leftover funds are placed into a reserve fund overseen by the Office of Student Affairs. According to Mayer, SGB recently requested additional funds from this reserve to continue meeting allocation requests for the remainder of the semester, although she said she is unaware of the total amount in the reserve. The reserve fund pays for various programs that support students experiencing emergency financial hardships.

The average amount requested per organization has increased by 82% in the past five years. During the 2019-2020 school year, the average amount per request was $3,896.64, compared to $7,101 for 2024-2025 so far.

In October, Mayer met with the administration to discuss increasing the student activities fee and expanding the allocations budget. Earlier this month, however, she said there is currently “no active pursuit” of raising the fee.

“We’re still in talk with administration, and we’ve been advocating for these concerns,” Mayer said. “We’re in conversations about how we might be able to raise the flat rate of money to a percentage of the activities fund or a different funding source.”

A flat raise would increase the student activities fee by a set dollar amount, while a percentage raise would give the board a higher percentage of the funds without raising the cost for students.

Although Mayer said the board is not currently making efforts to raise the student activities fee during her term, presidential and vice presidential candidates Mercy Akanmu and Evan Levasseur have named it one of their top priorities if they win SGB’s upcoming election on Mar. 11.

“We plan on continuing the work of current president Mayer to secure a percentage of the fund, then, we want to advocate for an increase in the student activities fee,” Levasseur said. “This will drastically change the landscape of allocations, allowing more students to receive the funding they deserve.”

Last year's SGB election ballot included a referendum to increase the fee by "$20 or less," but it failed, with 47.6% of students voting “No.” The Board of Trustees Student Affairs committee voted to raise the fee from $80 to $100 in May 2019, which was the most recent raise. 

According to Zhang, the allocations committee conducted an audit of expenses from the past five years earlier this month to “get a picture” of how money has been spent in the past.

“This year, there’s been a lower approval rate for requests overall,” Zhang said. “But, there are some years that are missing data that we’re not able to recover due to human error, which we made a note of in our audit.”

The board has approved 92.6% of the requests it has received so far this academic year with or without revisions, the lowest percentage of the past six years.