SGA recently announced that they are proposing an increase in their portion of the student activity fee in hope to address the increasing financial need among clubs on campus. This comes after several clubs received a significant cut to their budgets from previous years, making it nearly impossible for them to be active campus groups.
The increase in the amount SGA receives does not necessarily mean an increase in the fee for students either. The proposal is asking for an increase in the portion that SGA receives.
There are approximately 2,000 students on campus, multiplied by 215 gives approximately 430,000 dollars. SGA currently receives 130,000 dollars of the approximated total.
The proposal will increase the amount SGA receives to 252,000 dollars. The increase will allow clubs to receive larger funds to start with, and take the pressure off of them to fundraise.
President Marissa Serafino '12, and Vice-President Kevin Ward, '12 said in part of a statement given to Crier that, "Previous administrations have looked into raising the fee in prior years, but were not successful."
As of now, the 130,00 SGA receives is divided among approximately 40 clubs including CAB and SGA, the latter receiving whatever funds remain after appropriations.
In recent years with the increase of clubs, especially club sports, that amount has not been sufficient. Club sports are among the most popular on campus and require a lot of funds for travel and uniforms. This has added even more to the difficult process of appropriations.
The SGA leaders stated, "It is our job and goal to try to make sure that each club can function to the best to their ability, but with the limited funding we receive it has been more and more difficult."
Serafino and Ward explained this is why they felt now was the time to put together the proposal.
"The reason that we put this proposal together was to increase the amount that SGA gets in the student activities fee. As many clubs, along with SGA, are not funded adequately enough to run to their full potential," they stated.
The president and vice-president of SGA are confident in the benefits of the proposal saying, "This increase would allow each club to operate more adequately and have to focus on fundraising less and more on their daily operations."
The proposal is now in the hands of the administration. This is just the start of addressing the issue, however, and there will be a lot more discussion before anything is finalized.
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