Updates to the current Student Government budgeting policy are being proposed to the SGA. Mark Krupinski, the Senator who wrote the proposal, explained that much of the changes being made to the budgeting policy can be summarized as “moving a lot of subjective amounts from the guideline sections to the rules section of the budgeting policy,” and that this shift “limits the discretion that the budget committee has and makes budgeting more uniform for all student organizations.” Movement of policies to the rules section makes them implemented more firmly in comparison to when they were just considered guidelines. This proposal comes several weeks before the Semesterly Budget Meeting, where student organizations will propose their budgets for the following semester.
If these budget proposals pass, organizations must follow several rules for requesting funds at the Semesterly Budget Meeting. This will include budgeting for, at most, four events in the semester budget, limiting GBMs to $100 worth of food, limiting food to $12 per person at events, budgeting for prizes for at most two events, budgeting for at most $100 worth of promotional items, and including preliminary quotes for speakers, guests, and vendors. This rule also details that GBMs or previously held off-campus events that have no attendance record on Ducklink will not receive funding.
Krupinski is also proposing moving some budgetary policies from guidelines to rules, removing some subjective components of the Senate. These currently existing guidelines, which will become rules if the proposal passes, include limiting the total number of funded events per organization to five, limiting the total number of funded off-campus events per organization to two, limiting an organization to only two events that can be funded over $2,000, limiting Step Three Training RSOs to a budget limit of $200 per semester, and limiting Step Four Probationary RSOs to a budget limit of $1,000 per semester. Stipulations on budgeting for prizes were also moved to rules. As per the resolution update, “total prize allotments are limited to $175 per event,” and “co-sponsored events may be considered for extra funding not to exceed $175 per organization co-hosting.” A student organization can budget prizes for at most five events.
One new addition to the policies is the cap put on budgeting for off-campus events. Previously there was no cap placed on off-campus events, allowing student organizations to request funding more freely. This new cap details that “a maximum of $80 per person can be requested by the SO per non-conference off-campus event.” Other policies related to off-campus events such as conferences still stand and were moved to the rules section. For conferences specifically, “a maximum of $100 per person for up to 20 students may be requested for the purposes of attending a conference (or multiple conferences) per semester.” Also, students “attending a conference must contribute at least $20” of out of pocket money.
There were a few other additions made to the budgeting policy. RSOs and Non-RSOs need to send a representative to a budget committee meeting for any sort of funding request or they will not receive funding. Additionally, if a budget committee member holds a leadership position in a club with a budgeting request, that senator must abstain from voting on that request. Furthermore, at the Semesterly Budget Meeting, Subcommittee Heads are bound by the same rule. The policy regarding the rollover of leftover funds into the next semester was also updated and now stresses that “funds may only be rolled over if the funds are used for the same allocation.” Quorum for weekly budget meetings was also redefined to constitute the Vice President of Finance and half of the members of the Senate Budget Committee instead of one chair and three members of the Senate Budget Committee.
On the subject of what prompted these changes to be made for the budgeting policy, Krupinski commented that “it began last semester when Amnesty International and Society of Physics Students ended up with over $100 per person” for a conference and an off-campus event, respectively. For Amnesty International, he explained, “they got $100 per person initially and some people dropped out, so it ended up with more than $100 per person. They said because it was a guideline they weren’t at fault.” Due to this incident, firmer stipulations on budgeting for off-campus events and conferences and the movement of several policies from rules to guidelines were proposed to the budget policy. This past month, Krupinski began formally writing up all the changes and sent it to the Senate for feedback. These changes will be presented officially at upcoming SGA Senate meeting this Sunday and will be voted on the following week, November 3. The Budget Committee hopes to get the updated policy passed in time for the Semesterly Budget Meeting, which will be held on November 17.
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