By RAEGAN NEUFELD
Tiger Media Network
Student organizations will have less allocations money available next year compared to previous years. As such, the Student Government Association recommended to allocate just 38% of what was requested.
Student senators heard the allocations bill for the first time at Thursday’s meeting and will vote on it next week. In total, 61 organizations and clubs requested $1.609 million. There is only $606,538 available to allocate, down from the $894,000 allocated last year.
SGA Treasurer Jackson Sinsel and the Allocations Committee met with representatives from each organization requesting money this semester to make the recommendations in the bill. Sinsel explained there was more to allocate last year because of money accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Students weren’t going on trips. They didn’t request allocations because we all were in COVID protocol,” he said.
When money allocated to an organization is not used, it goes back into the allocations account, which is funded by student fee money. The excess funds from during the pandemic are now depleted.
“We may have had more funds for years to come, but I think the idea last year was to get those funds out because we didn’t think we should just be sitting on a large amount of money and wanted to let the groups actually utilize that,” Sinsel said.
If the bill passes as it stands, no group will receive their fully requested amount. Just one organization, the Social Work Club, appealed the amount it’s recommended to receive for the annual Judy Caprez Field Day. According to representatives from the club, they will need more money to secure presenters for the event. The issue will be discussed next week when senators vote on the bill.
In other news, senators addressed concerns with some of the residential halls.
Sen. Elle Hutchinson discussed recent ceiling damage in some of the bathrooms in Victor E. Village due to a water leak. The four bathrooms that suffered damage are handicap accessible, leaving a handicapped student with no bathroom on the first floor.
According to Hutchinson, the student submitted multiple work orders and contacted Residential Life, but nothing was done.
“The only way it got resolved was (the student’s) mother had to contact Residential Life,” she said.
Sinsel then discussed several issues he knew of in Tiger Village that went unresolved after work orders were submitted.
“I think something needs to be said because there’s been several things that have been overlooked several times,” he said.
President Ella Burrows said she can meet with the director of Residential Life to address the issue.
SGA will meet again at 7 p.m. on March 7 in the Black and Gold Room.