SGA finalizes 2010-11 budget

The Student Government Association (SGA) gathered for the penultimate time, and the final time before their annual, year-end banquet, in the Seminar Room of the Frank G. Pogue Student Center at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 19. The finalized budget for the 2010-2011 school year was presented and the final round of appeals for allocations was held.

The University Programming Board’s (UPB) request for additional funds to, at least, equal their allocation from last year, a difference of around $4,000, presented an enlightening view of the appeal process.

After originally requesting an increased budget of $115,232.00 for 2010-2011, UPB was set to receive $82,789.00, their exact allocation for 2009-2010. This was before, however, the overall budget figure was taken into consideration.

“[Director of Operations Mike Robel] and I went over the numbers and we were in the hole about $82,000, so we had to go through and take off at least $500 from every organization and program,” said director of finances Nora Tretter.

For UPB specifically, the itemized cuts were in areas such as office supplies, Spectator advertising and calendars, where Tretter noted requested funds could be generously rounded or misused altogether.

While members of the Executive Board eschewed the significance of a $4,000 cut, some members of Congress, citing UPB’s role as a provider for the entire campus, insisted that it can’t be dismissed.

One such member, Josh Bow, spoke of the prevalence of students who return home on weekends for a lack of activities on campus. He commended the UPB for making strides in improving weekend options and contributing to the “campus atmosphere,” suggesting that any funds they receive could be beneficial to the student body at large.

As arguments were presented both in favor of accepting and denying the appeal, an underlying factor may have swayed undecided voters.

The 2010-2011 budget is currently balanced and, to grant the UPB additional funds, SGA would have to tap into the general fund, of which $25,000 had already been used for allocations, to allot any more money.

Despite a close 9-7 vote, the appeal was denied, paving the way for the subsequent vote and approval on the finalized 2010-2011 budget of $1,408,620.00.

SGA’s next endeavor will be The Big Event on Saturday, April 24.

SGA will hold their year-end banquet at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 26 in the Seminar Room of the Frank G. Pogue Student Center.

• Facebook Comments
• Site Comments

1 comments

Anonymous

Wed Apr 21 2010 16:35

To educate the ignorant: SGA receives the net total of the student activity fee. You know, the fee all students pay for student ACTIVITIES. So the one group whose purpose is to provide activities to the students of Edinboro who pay that fee, receive less than SIX PERCENT of the operating budget.

The next time students complain that there isn't anything to do, that the school-sponsored concert sucks because they couldn't afford a bigger name act, or that they are tired of making snow globes during family weekend - point to your student "leaders" in SGA. I'm sure their stipends amount to more actually spent funding STUDENT ACTIVITIES.

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out