The Student Association Finance Board allocated roughly $685,000 in funding for recognized student organizations for the spring 2016 semester, which the assembly voted to package at its Monday night meeting.

The board had received about $1.5 million in budget requests, which was an average amount, SA Comptroller Phil Kramer said, but the board had about $100,000 less available to allocate for the spring semester than it typically does.

That’s because in the spring, the board allocated more money than it usually does for the fall semester. Additionally, there was less rollover money, which is unspent money the Finance Board gets back from RSOs.

The Finance Board also recently provided extra funding to Orange After Dark, which puts on late night programs for SU students that Kramer said are consistently successful.

“Those couple of things together … threw a wrench into things,” Kramer said.

To combat these disadvantages, Kramer cut funding this semester for special programming, which makes up weekly rolling budgets throughout the semester. But at about $720,000, there was still less money available for the spring semester allocation than there usually is.

The 10 Finance Board members, who were each at one point elected by SA, spent last week deciding how to allocate that money, which comes from the student activity fee. It was one of the final steps in a process that includes fiscal agent training sessions, budget proposals, the board’s proposal reviews, budget hearings, votes on the proposals and a round of appeals.

Early in the semester, every RSO’s fiscal agent was required to attend a training session, during which Kramer explained how to properly fill out a budget proposal.

SA Vice President Jane Hong was formerly a member of the Korean American Student Association and said when she was a member, she and the rest of the group spent hours on their budget proposal, which ended up getting fully approved.

“Putting in a lot of detail is why we got full approval,” she said. “ … The budget proposals are really important to the Finance Board understanding where you’re coming from.”

In reviewing proposals, the Finance Board first simply ensured that each form was filled out properly and that all the costs added up correctly. On Oct. 17 and 18, the board held budget proposal hearings, with each RSO getting a designated time slot for their hearing.

Then, last week, the board voted on the proposals. Kramer said approving a budget essentially comes down to whether the board feels the RSO can succeed in holding the event it has requested money for. To figure this out, the board typically looks at the RSO’s experience and whether it has had success in the past.

Each RSO is put into one of four tiers, and each tier determines how much money the RSO is able to request. RSOs in tier one can request up to $10,000; RSOs in tier two can request up to $20,000; RSOs in tier three can request up to $40,000; and RSOs in tier four can request more than $40,000.

Kramer said the board gives some priority to RSOs in higher tiers but emphasizes spreading the money around fairly. Some RSOs might request funding for four or five events, while an RSO in a lesser tier might only request funding for one event. The board tries to ensure that each organization can get funding for at least one event.

RSOs requesting funding for multiple events are asked to indicate which events are most important to them, which Kramer said tend to be the events that the RSOs hold annually, rather than new events they want to host. This process allows the board to ensure the larger RSOs are getting funding for their most significant events.

RSOs can also opt to file appeals for events that were completely denied of funding. Kramer projects that the board will allocate between $40,000 and $50,000 in appeals, which would bring the total allocation near the original $720,000 projection.

Appeals are being accepted until Thursday and decisions on the appeals will be made next Monday.

Published on October 27, 2015 at 9:50 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu