By Susannah Waite, Editor-in-Chief
Student organizations may not know until September how much money they will get from the student government.
Student Senate upheld SGA President Robin Ladd’s veto of the allotments at their April 9 meeting.
Senate approved allotments totaling about $16,000 for the fall at the April 2 meeting. Ladd vetoed the allotments the next day.
Allotments are money provided to student organizations that apply at the beginning of each semester for funding from SGA.
Ladd said she vetoed the allotments because SGA probably will receive budget cuts next semester.
Student Affairs administration advised Ladd that cuts could be coming, Ladd said.
“The president doesn’t know the budget until July 1,” she said.
It was unwise to allot money without knowing the budget, Ladd said.
Senate’s appropriations committee based this semester’s allotments off of SGA’s five star ranking system. Each organization is ranked based on a star system, which ultimately decides how much funding each organization will receive.
The appropriations committee decides the cap for each star, which typically is more than $50, Ladd said.
SGA funding comes out of the student affairs budget, and Ladd said administrators discussed the possibility of student affairs receiving a budget cut.
“Had I signed those they would have been in affect regardless, and Student Government would have had to find a way to fund those things, possibly at the detriment of other events that students also enjoy,” she said.
Senators discussed the veto for nearly an hour during the April 9 Senate meeting before voting to overturn the veto or let the decision stand. Three senators voted to overturn the veto, eight voted to let it stand and two senators abstained.
Several senators expressed concerns with time, asking Ladd if student organizations would receive funds at a reasonable time if the allotments were not passed.
“If the committee meets and makes a decision in August, or even September, the transfers will still occur about the same time,” Ladd said. “Organizations will not be affected by an additional allotments meeting.”
Ladd also said she met with Beatrize Martinez, president-elect at the time, to discuss her decision.
“I know president-elect Martinez is very passionate about helping student organizations, and I have full confidence that she’ll be able to assess and solve the problem,” Ladd said.
Without two-thirds vote to overturn the veto, the veto stands and it will be up to the new administration to review allotments after a budget is set for the upcoming academic year.
“I do think the committee will meet in August and get this taken care of,” Ladd said. “In my opinion that is a little bit more wise because then they’ll know exactly the figures that they have.”
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