SGA BBBM

The Student Government Association (SGA) held its semesterly budget meeting, also known as the “Big Beautiful Budget Meeting (BBBM),” on Sunday, November 17 in the Fielding Room. For nearly 12 hours, the committee chipped away at the fates of over 90 student organizations that had submitted budgets for the Spring 2020 semester.

One of the main responsibilities of the SGA is managing and distributing the Student Activity Fee (SAF). Anticipating $770,000 from the SAF next semester and $50,000 left over from this semester, $841,533.59 was approved by the Senate for club spending at this past Wednesday’s Senate meeting.

Of the $841,533.59, $233,750 will go to line items for the Office of Student Life, $189,000 will go to line items for the SGA, $115,707 to Club Sports, and $303,076.59 to student organizations. The breakdown of these line items can be found on the SGA’s DuckLink page as Resolution S-19F-007.

Club budgets were decided by the Budget Committee and the Committee on Student Interests (CSI). “Cuts” to budgets are divided into “objective cuts,” based on the rules in the SGA budget policies and the Student Organization Policies Manual written by the Office of Student Life, and “subjective cuts,” which are entirely up to the discretion of the voting members of the BBBM.

The SGA updates these policies frequently, as noted in a previous article published in The Stute this semester. One change that affected many clubs this semester is that organizations are now only allowed to request funds for up to four events (they could previously request funding for up to five) and can ask for more money through an additional funding request (AFR) for an additional fifth event during the semester in question. Unaware of the changes to the financial policy, many student organizations submitted requests for five or more events.

Another change was that projects and performances would also count as events. This affected organizations such as the Stevens Dramatic Society, which receives funding for shows in DeBaun as well as small-scale events for members, and Stevens Hobby Robotics Club, which receives funding for materials.

Organizations that saw a huge portion of their budget cut were Stevens Italian Club, which received $0 due to organizational management issues within the club, and Gear and Triangle, which only received 13% of the budget they requested. The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) were organizations that submitted their budgets late, so they also did not receive any of their budgets, but were told they could return to the committee next semester and request the same funds as an AFR.