Student Government Association faces a budget cut this year.
SGA’s budget for the 2015-16 academic year is $165,000, $45,000 less than last year’s budget. SGA received notice of the cut in June, but SGA President Chance Johnson is unsure of who made the decision because of turnover in academic affairs office.
“There were budget cuts across the board as a result of prioritization,” Johnson said. “Our budget cut was a result of Academic Affairs’ budget cut.”
SGA passed their budget for the fall semester as $74,143 then allocated the rest for the law school and the spring semester.
“It’s a slow and painful process, but we’re finding ways to save money,” Johnson said. “Five thousand was saved by cutting salaries, we’re paring down on event expenses and we got rid of The New York Times readership program. It’s a long, line-by-line process.”
All members of SGA lost some of their salary and some senator positions are no longer paid, they’re just volunteer. Johnson said they lost some people who needed the financial part of it, but participation actually has increased.
“We understand we need to tighten our belts university wide,” Johnson said. “This means tough decision, but we have a strong leadership team and can compensate for less money with better ideas and management.”
Johnson said he wants to give students a word of encouragement that less money doesn’t necessarily mean poor campus events, it just means SGA is trying to use money more efficiently. “The hope of the executive committee is that students will not feel adversely affected by the changes in the budget,” said Nic Rhodes, vice president of SGA. “We’ve done are best to allocate as much as possible to maximizing constituent utility.”
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