ABILENE, TX – New developments involving the distribution of funds to student organizations were discussed in the budget meeting Wednesday evening.
The Student Government Association (SGA) works to find beneficial ways to distribute the right amount of funding to each organization. SGA is currently funding 53 organizations this semester, slightly fewer than last semester with 60 organizations funded.
Funding for student organizations stems from an operational income from the university as well as a direct portion of the student activity fee. The activity fee comes from each student’s tuition and can be found in the breakdown of the student’s bill.
“Something we do every semester is meet with each organization to discuss how we did,” said Daniel Sherman, SGA President and senior business management major from Abilene. “We really want to know how we can improve moving forward and what would better help each organization individually.”
One of the main new developments discussed in the budget meeting is a “fundraising matching system” which is an alternative method to receiving funds outside of allocated funds from the budget. SGA will set aside $1,000 and match each organization’s funds raised up to $250.
Ross Dean, SGA treasurer and finance and senior accounting major from Keller, personally pushed for this development to be established to further help organizations achieve their financial goals.
“We are trying to implement new things such as this system; however, we are also focused on achieving a solid funding policy to keep moving forward,” said Dean. “My primary goal is how can I set up a framework for each organization to easily go and carry out their mission on campus.”
In this semester’s budget meeting, funds requested for every organization were 100 percent met. Every organization was satisfied with their allocation and no group lobbied for change, allowing 100 percent of funding to be passed.
Due to funds being completely met for all organizations, additional funding provided by the matching system will most likely not be needed; however, this system can and will be carried into future semesters.
