SGA receives budget increase

The Student Government Association has seen an increase in funds available to it this year. SGA had a $57,881 budget during the 2008-09 school year, but this year’s budget is $76,687.

The increase in funds should not only benefit student activities as a whole, but are available to any approved Registered Student Organization on campus that asks.

Though $10,000 of the budget is earmarked for University Advancement which funds academic travel, the vast majority of RSOs remain unaware of these benefits and their access to it.

President of SGA, Zach Mullins, said there are plans to experiment with new techniques to raise awareness of organization funding.

“We’re thinking of dividing up different RSOs for the senators by opening communication with the RSOs to explain what SGA can do for them in terms of giving them money, leadership opportunities, that sort of thing,” Mullins said.

A first come, first serve basis, requesting the allocation of funds simply requires the organization to fill out an Application for Student Senate Bill, located on the MyCats Web site by following the SGA link.

Sabrina Atkins, a senior SGA senator and political science major, shares her enthusiasm to represent the student body as chair of appropriations, her role being to directly collaborate with the RSOs.

“It’s becoming more well known, but I think students forget that we have $12,000 laying around to give to students to help them out. All they have to do is ask,” Atkins said.

Upon applying for funds, RSOs must recognize the money is given on a reimbursement basis only and granted primarily for special events, travel, or one-time purchases.

Recently returning from a wakeboarding tournament in Orlando, Fla., captain of the club wakeboarding team and senior business major, Stephen Rhodes, expressed his opinion of the RSO funding and its effectiveness as the team seeks reimbursements from SGA for expenses such as gas, lodging, and even new wakeboarding equipment.

“It would be easier if they could give us the money beforehand, but either way, if they didn’t give us the money, we wouldn’t ever have the opportunity to go to these tournaments,” Rhodes said.

Though students are appreciative, few are skeptical as to why the organization has managed to obtain more funds while other university departments have experienced budget cuts.

In response to the examination, SGA said that tits budget is based on the pool of money directly related to the increase in student activity fees for the current 2009-10 school year.

“Its hard to pinpoint right now where money will be invested because it’s so early on in the senate season, but its all going back to the students, that’s the main part,” Mullins said.

Seeking to more thoroughly serve the student community through this budget increase, SGA is contemplating creating a press secretary position. This position will deal more specifically with maintaining the SGA Web site, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Apart from reaching students through various media outlets, SGA remains persistent in brainstorming remedies to more efficiently relay any updated information back to their audience of GCSU students.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 25 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry