SGA holds forum on funds process

From hosting budget workshops for treasurers to creating more incentives for organizations to combine events, leaders from various student organizations aired their thoughts on how the SGA can fix the flawed process for funding the university's student-led groups.

In September, Student Government Association President Kaiyi Xie formed the Commission on Financial Reform — a committee comprised largely of the presidents and treasurers of various student organizations — charged with proposing how the body can revamp the way student activities fees are allocated to student organizations each year. Last night, the commission held a town hall forum to hear input from various student leaders on how to improve this process.

Last year, the SGA had a pool of $730,000 to dole out to student groups, but groups requested $3 million. Funding woes came to a head after the SGA initially allocated $20,000 more than it had available, which left the future of several student groups in jeopardy before the body restored funding to six groups in desperate need.

About a dozen presidents and treasurers from different university groups — ranging from the Indian Students Association to the Episcopal Anglican Terps — attended last night's forum to try to prevent this situation from repeating itself.

Many student group leaders said their new treasurers often feel ill-equipped to craft their group's budget, which determines how much money they will request from the SGA during the spring allocation process.

"It's surprising to me how often treasurers of different organizations don't even know what to do when it comes to making budgets," said Chris Hall, Coalition of Latino Student Organizations president. "It's not that the SGA is not talking with them, it's that they're not working with them."

Although the SGA has a financial guidebook posted on its website, several suggested the SGA should host hands-on training sessions for treasurers at the end of the spring semester and again in the fall. Hafie Yillah, Sneaker Cartel president, suggested providing an assessment for treasurers to take after their training to test what they learned.

"As a new treasurer, I felt really kind of out of the loop," said The Love Movement's Aaron Revere. "I think a training session would have been really helpful, and even having a guide on the website would be really useful just to have that to refer to."

Additionally, too many organization's leaders request more than their organization needs, which is detrimental to how much each group ultimately receives overall, according to SGA Assistant Vice President of Finance Gursean Singh.

"It's no secret that people are always putting extra events at the bottom of their budgets because things are going to get cut," Singh said. "So how can we mitigate that so groups get the events they want and not the extra fluff?"

Several group leaders suggested capping how much the SGA will fund different line items — which includes advertising, office supplies and space rental — but many SGA officials noted this may negatively impact groups that need more money than others.

It would be more cost-effective if student groups co-sponsored events more often, Yillah said.

"Big event collaboration benefits everybody — that can't be denied," Yillah said. "Cultural groups can still have their events that celebrate their culture and appeal to their culture, but I think the SGA could try to unify the different groups."

However, several student leaders and SGA members said asking groups to work together more might not be feasible — it might be more effective if the body offered an incentive for increased collaboration.

"At the end of the day, it's up to the student groups," Hall said. "As much as I'd love to see cross-cultural events, as far as getting the SGA to try to force it, I think it's kind of unreasonable."

Singh also asked for feedback on changing the allocation process so requests are submitted on a rolling basis rather than one time in the spring and fall.

Raising student activity fees — which have only increased $5.02 over the past decade — could help these groups receive the funds they need, Singh said.

"The fact that we are all here shows that we have students who are interested in campus groups and really the student body needs it," said Margaret-Ellen Johnson, Help Center president. "I think raising it just a couple of dollars, even though it's a tough economy, is not a big deal when people pay $100 for a basketball game some people may not even go to anyway," she said, referring to the $198.77 athletics fee.