Student Union treasurer Kadeja Gaines presented the 2007-08 budget allocation to members of the Council of Representatives (COR) during Tuesday's meeting in LaFortune.
Gaines and other members of the Financial Management Board (FMB) met with student club members familiar with their clubs' expense needs in order to determine how best to divide $479,383.56 between the groups. The total came from student activities fees, proceeds from sales of The Shirt and the recently created endowment. Those three revenue streams added up to $840,925, but fixed expenses for budget items - including technology fees of $361,541.44 - left a little over $479,000 for allocation.
Among the student government groups receiving a piece of the allocation funds were the Treasurer's Office; Judicial Council; Club Coordination Council; the Classes of 2008, 2009 and 2010; Senior Week 2008, Hall Presidents Council; Off-Campus Council; Student Union Board; Council of Representatives and the College Readership Program.
Gaines noted that the amount of money available for allocation is a conservative estimate.
"We don't want to over-allocate or run too close so that we have money to allocate again in the fall," Gaines said.
As a result, money available to FMB is based on a projected number of 7,355 students attending the university next year.
"This is important because things like student activities fees are 95 dollars per student, and this is part of the money that goes into the total FMB can allocate," Gaines said.
The amount student government committees received from the allocation varied greatly. Larger groups in charge of high-cost events received more money from FMB's allocation; the Student Union Board, for example, received $239,827.92 - a little more than half of the total amount of money available to student government groups. Off-Campus Council - a smaller organization - received $1,000.
In other COR news:
u Student body president Liz Brown announced plans for a revamped student government Web site, which she hoped to have running by August.
"It would have been the fall of 2005 the last time there was an updated Web site," Brown said. "It had a list of headlines with major events going on, some of the minutes from various meetings, and a list of calendar events that were going on. It was a pretty simple page."
Several members of COR offered suggestions for the content of the Web site, including a frequently asked questions section about student government, links to other organizations, information about how students can get involved and pictures from recent activities taking place around campus.
