SGB $3,000 in the hole, says debt is manageable

The Student Government Board and its allocations committee has allocated more than its… The Student Government Board and its allocations committee has allocated more than its $100,000 for the semester and now has a $3,000 debt, according to allocations’ chairman Felix Yerace.

Yerace said this semester, the committee had $100,000 for campus groups to use, and the committee allocated $97,000. The Board also allocated about $6,000, he said.

According to Yerace, at this time last year, the committee’s debt was four times as much as this year’s. He added that Terry Milani of the Office of Student Life, which gives money to SGB and the allocations committee, told him that a small debt could be covered.

When asked for comment early Wednesday afternoon, Milani said he had not heard about the current debt, “I can’t comment on that. This is the first question [I’ve had about a debt].”

Yerace said he and the committee’s vice chair met with Milani in early February, before his committee worked on student groups’ budgets for next year. They told him the committee was out of money, but at that time, they did not give him an exact number for their debt. He added that he talked to Milani Wednesday afternoon.

Since he talked to Milani in February about the problem, Yerace said the committee only approved one request worth $281.

Yerace said Milani told him to only accept requests that were vital for a group’s survival to avoid a bigger debt.

Milani could not be reached later for further comment.

According to what Milani said earlier in the day, “Essentially if they exceed a budget by $3,000 it can be dealt with effectively.”

He added that Yerace and he would discuss the issue.

Milani and Yerace did agree that not all of the money allocated is actually spent by groups, so the committee may be getting refunds from already allocated funds.

Yerace said he did not know the exact amount that had been allocated and not used; however, it usually is at least $3,000. The allocations committee would not receive the unused money until the end of the fiscal year, on June 30.

According to Yerace, 49 percent of money for student activities goes to SGB, which takes out operating expenses, and the committee receives its funding. The remaining 51 percent goes to Pitt Program Council and WPTS-FM, Pitt’s radio station.

Yerace said he did not totally understand how Milani managed the money, but he did understand the money PPC and WPTS does not spend by the end of the year could be used to supplement the allocations debt – if at the end of the fiscal year the debt was not paid off by unused funds. Otherwise, the committee would have to use money that is supposed to be used next year.

Milani, however, said money allocated for PPC and WPTS were separate from the money allotted to SGB, and though the radio station may have extra money at the end of the term, that did not mean allocations would have access to it.

SGB President Kevin Washo Jr. said a $5 increase in the student activities fee could help solve the debt problem in the future and would help with the increase in groups on campus and inflation.

“It’s a good thing the money is going, students are excited about their groups,” he said. “But we think we could do a better job and see if we could be more stringent [about allocating money].”

According to Yerace, last semester the committee allocated all of their available money, which was between $100,000 and $125,000, without going into debt.

To look into this and other problems, Yerace formed a new select committee to evaluate current procedures and to make suggestions about how to improve the allocations’ system, including creating a set of bylaws, which the allocations committee currently does not have.

Yerace said this was his fourth time on the committee, and since he’s been involved, the committee has not done a self-review.

Washo and Board member Liz Culliton are two of the five members on the committee headed by Yerace. Culliton is the current SGB business manager.

According to Culliton, the committee was formed so people who have experience with the allocations’ manual and process could look into the problems first.

Yerace said this committee would not have the ability to make formal changes to the allocations manual, which sets rules as to what the committee can allocate. Those changes must go through the Office of Student Life; however, he added that much of what they will be evaluating does not.

He has not talked to Milani about this new committee yet.

The committee can and has made its own additional rules for allocating money by setting precedents to try to work within its budget, he said. These include allocating no more than $200 for banners for a group.

“The allocations committee has to be neutral,” he said. “The way we treat one organization is the way we have to treat all organizations.”

While evaluating the current system, the committee will decide if some precedents should become real rules or are outdated, including the common practice of giving money for recruitment to governance groups and not to nongovernance groups.

According to Culliton, the allocations committee has always worked on precedents.

“That’s a big problem, because how’s a group supposed to know without things written down?” she added.

The committee will work toward making the allocations process more open and easier to understand for student groups, such as adding information to the allocations committee’s Web site about the allocation process.

“We want to make sure everybody understands why we are doing what we’re doing ’cause in the end, it’s their money – not ours,” Yerace said.

Written recommendations and opinions from student groups are welcomed, he added. Suggestions made will be added to the committee’s report, even if the committee does not agree with them.

After compiling the report, which is expected to take the rest of this semester and some of the summer, Yerace said he would give it to the proper authorities in the Office of Student Life, who can decide what if any changes they will make to the allocations’ manual, and to next year’s SGB and allocations committee, who can use it to determine what changes they will implement.