Student Government Association has a new budget, but it came later than expected.
The SGA president and his/her cabinet drafts the budget. It then goes through the executive committee, then the steering committee and is then brought for approval by Student Senate.
Senate adopted the approximately $153,000 budget Thursday after suspending their original deadline. The budget went through the executive committee and then the steering committee, but it failed on the Senate floor Thursday. An earlier version of the budget that went from the executive committee to the steering committee will be used instead and is the budget SGA will operate on this year.
Jordan Tarter, English junior and SGA president, said senators resorted to this without a vote because the budget cannot be amended on the Senate floor, and SGA couldn’t wait another two weeks for a budget.
The budget allocates about $23,000 to Senate allocations, about $10,000 to allotments, about $72,000 to Student Activities Council, and about $31,000 to the law school’s Student Bar Association.
“Every little bit of that money should help us create a more efficient and student-focused campus,” Tarter said.
SGA’s bylaws require that a budget must be presented within the first two weeks of school. SGA members had to suspend the bylaw for the second consecutive year because of a section of the bylaws that sets a formula for how much money SGA must give to SBA. The formula is based on the total number of credit hours for the law school and the total number of undergrads. The law school does not release those numbers until 12 days after classes start, which is after the budget deadline.
The bylaw can be changed, but no senator has requested the change. Until that happens, the bylaw will need to be suspended each year.
Austin Gipson-Black, religion/political science senior and SGA vice president, said he thinks an amendment to change the bylaw will be submitted at some point.
“At that point when it’s submitted, I’m sure it will be amended,” he said. “They’ll either extend the time period to three weeks or say something vague like, ‘the earliest date after the law school submits numbers.’”
The approved budget provides Tarter with an annual salary of $1,500; Gipson-Black with $1,830; Ellie Roth, finance junior and chief justice, with $500, and Tyler Patton, mass communications senior and chief of staff, with $500. No other senators accepted a salary. Madelynn Buckman, entertainment business senior and vice president of SAC, forfeited hers so her commissioners could divide it between them.
Tarter said some senators were uncomfortable with her receiving a lower salary than Gipson-Black, even though she was fine with it. But, because the budget cannot be amended on the Senate floor, the salaries remained the same.
“Several senators wanted to raise mine to equal to his,” she said. “Though the salaries did not change, I don’t think that should have been the main concern.’”
Trae Trousdale, mass communications sophomore, was unable to attend the Senate meeting Thursday, but he sent a letter to the senators encouraging them to pass the budget as it was instead of squabbling over their own issues.
“Pettiness, malice, and greed have no place within the Student Government Association,” the letter reads. “I ask that each of you stand with me in opposition to these leeches on leadership, and pass this budget.”
Trousdale said he didn’t mean to offend anyone with the letter but wanted to ensure SGA members were doing their jobs.
“I was not by any means attempting to call anyone out, it was just saying, ‘the crap has got to stop,’” he said. “It’s time that we actually start working again for the students rather than trying to advance our own agendas.”
Buckman said Senate voted against the budget out of spite toward Gipson-Black, even though the salary numbers didn’t change in the final budget.
“President Tarter said she was okay with taking less of a salary, so I don’t understand why that was an issue that was being discussed when she stated in our exec meeting that she was fine,” she said.
Trousdale said some of the senators who voted against passing the budget are not working toward SGA’s greater purpose.
“They see how they would like it to go and aren’t willing to truly compromise and serve all students,” he said.
Contributing: Staff Writer Callie Dewees
“Some Senators” aka Senator Hall