Money requests well exceed funds

Student Government Board worked late because more than 40 supplemental requests for student… Student Government Board worked late because more than 40 supplemental requests for student organization budgets flooded in at their weekly Thursday night meeting.

The sudden influx of applications could be largely attributed to an upcoming allocationscommittee moratorium on accepting requests. The moratorium will last until the end of spring break.

“We had roughly $95,000 in requests, and we only had roughly $20,000 to give out,” Board President Brian Kelly said Friday. “We hit that mark almost exactly, so in that regard I am happy.”

Kelly added that he was saddened by having to turn down “quality programs” because of a lack of funds.

On several occasions, the president voted to break a tie within the Board. Each time he voted to accept the allocations request.

“As a past member of the allocations committee, I know the amount of time that goes into making their recommendations,” he said. “I listen to the committee greatly and appreciate their work.”

Allocations Committee Chair Joshua Taylor said budgets will be released on March 1. He said that, of the estimated $700,000 spent in the entire budget, approximately $500,000 was allocated in the regular budgeting process and approximately $200,000 will be used to fill supplemental requests, such as the ones proposed on Thursday.

In terms of fiscal responsibility, Taylor said the Board granted $1,000 more than their goal of $700,000, but he added that the amount was easily manageable.

Kelly seemed consistently cognizant of the Board’s restraints.

“While it is very difficult to look students in the eyes and deny their requests, it had to be done in order to remain fiscally responsible,” he said. “I would love to give every group that has a legitimate cause as much money as they need; however, in our fiscal climate, it just can’t happen.”

Taylor credited the tightness of funds to a general increase in the amount of money being asked for by each group, accompanied by a slight increase in the number of groups asking for money.

In 1999-2000, groups asked for $495,000, according to Taylor.

This year, he said, they asked for $1.1 million.

Kelly recommended that organizations look for funds from other outlets, such as fundraising and a program run through the provost’s office, known as the Student Leadership Through Service Fund.

The Board will work with certain groups to find alternative funding sources, Kelly said, before he asserted another potential solution to the problem.

“Last night was living proof that the student activities fee needs to be raised,” Kelly said. “We would have been able to fund many of the programs we had to cut if we would simply have more money to spend.”

The issue of raising the student activities fee, a portion of every student’s tuition given to student organizations, will reach the Board in two weeks. There will not be an SGB meeting this week.