The SGA’s Spring 2016 budget is projected to decrease due to the recent re-structuring of the Student Activity Fee, despite the increase in enrollment. The budget will not be enough to cover both of the two major Spring events, based on their historic costs. Cutting Founders Day Ball was out of the question, so that left Boken. This leaves little choice for having both events.
Either the Student Activity Fee increases back to its original amount of $245 per semester, or student organizations on campus will have less money allocated to them for the Spring semesters to come. Students who attended the last SGA budget meeting saw how much in a bind the student Senate was in to balance the budget and bring the number back in the black.
In order to provide some context into what exactly the SGA receives, it is important to know the overhead costs that Stevens incurs. Before the SGA sees the money collected from the Student Activity Fee, it is first used to pay off line items set by Student Life. These include the subscription to OrgSync, club sports, the Midnight Breakfast, the salary for the new financial advisor working in The Office of Student Life, and new Duckbill machines.
Both RAGE and TechFest are able to be hosted in the Fall due to the relatively large increase of the fee during summer sessions. The unspent summer budget rolls over into the Fall semester, leading to the Fall budget being significantly larger than the Spring budget. To cope with the missing budget, the SGA plans to issue new budgeting restrictions, primarily focused on limiting how much organizations can request for off-campus conferences. Organizations also now cannot buy gift cards as prizes for competitions, and any prize given needs to be less than $50 in retail value.
In Stevens’ constant efforts to reduce costs, they do a significant amount of work with their Chief Risk and Compliance Officer and are phasing out the use of P-Cards. RSOs are now encouraged to use their organization’s Account Number in place of the P-Card. An RSO’s Account Number works similar to a bank account, but charges and expenses are not immediately posted to the account. Receipts must still be submitted via Stevens OrgSync. In addition, purchases over $200 still need to be submitted through the purchasing department on the 7th floor. Student Life says this is to reduce costs related to accountability complications. Chris Shemanski, Coordinator of Student Life says “At this point, the institution has not lost any money due to fraudulent activity, but we must continue to be good stewards and fiscally responsible with how and where we use our purchasing cards.”
SGA President Matt Hunt and Treasurer Pat MacLane say that it will take a significant amount of student buzz to convince Stevens’ CFO to raise the Student Activity Fee.
