By Lindsay Haislip
News Editor
Each year, the SGA’s Budget Committee has the important job of allocating funds to each recognized club and organization on campus. With only a limited budget to allocate, the committee is left year after year wanting to give more to clubs than it is able. One way that the committee is looking to lessen the gap between what it wants to allocate and what it is actually able to allocate is by increasing the student activities fee. Students have the option to vote on the proposed fee increase.
The need for more funds most likely does not come as a shock for most club and organization leaders, as there seems to be a consistent disappointment regarding the funds that their clubs are allocated.
On one hand, the student body is growing, resulting in a “slow-but-steady” increase of the annual budget; but with this growth comes more student desire to create new clubs and request funding from the SGA.
“The last thing we want is to do is continue to cut funding from clubs that have proven their worthiness in the past,” said senior SGA Financial Controller Michael Drake. “At the same time, we want to allow for new clubs to be created, to continue to allow for a diversity of extracurricular activities for Washington College students.”
Ultimately, the increase is not very significant, but would make a huge difference in allowing clubs to be allotted more of their requested funding.
“The recommendation from the SGA Senate is to raise the Student Activities Fee by $38.15 per semester, increasing our SGA’s allocation of the fee from $100.55 to $138.70 each semester. In other words, this would increase the annual fee $76.30,” said Drake.
Using this semester as an example, this increase alone would account for over 70 percent of the difference between what the Budget Committee wanted to give, and what it is actually able to allocate to organizations.
The Committee is also closely examining their budget process for the future to eliminate unnecessary and inefficient spending, which will allow clubs that truly make a difference for the student body and the community to receive a larger percentage of their budget request.
The SGA Senate has already voted to recommend the increase and has posed the idea to the student body. If the referendum passes, the increase will be recommended to the Board of Visitors and
Governors.
“While I don’t think that this raise is 110 percent necessary, I definitely believe that it will be extremely beneficial. Everything thing we do is with the intention of better serving the student body,” Drake said.