The Quinnipiac University Student Government Association released its spring 2024 student organization budget, funding roughly 60% of the requested amount.
“We get a certain amount of money for the entire academic year,” said Sarah Almeida, SGA’s vice president for operations and a senior finance and computer information systems major. “Sixty percent of our $875,000 was given out for this current semester, which means we had 40% left for the next semester.”
SGA funded 84 chartered student organizations, associations and clubs for the spring 2024 semester, allocating $366,054.01— 40% of the total budget and what was left from the fall semester — across 77 organizations.
In order for an organization to receive funding, it must meet certain requirements in a set period of time. Some of those include submitting its budget, meeting with an SGA operations representative and attending the Budget Weekend, a series of days when organization leaders come in and talk the SGA operations committee through the individual requests in their budgets, Almeida said.
“This time we had almost double the amount requested as we had to allocate,” Almeida said. “So we had to see what we are able to allocate — cut is the wrong word here because no one is really starting with anything.”
The total amount that the organizations requested was $615,071.07.
At the end of the process, Almeida explained the operations committee submits a recommendation to the entire SGA general board and it, as a whole, votes on the recommendation.
Almeida noted that every organization on campus “can request as much as they want to.” However, an organization’s funding request does not automatically guarantee it to them.
The biggest portion of that budget was allocated to Quinnipiac University’s Student Programming Board. SPB requested $280,000, but SGA only approved $146,080 for the spring semester.
SPB specifically asked for $100,000 for its annual Wake the Giant event, stating it as its highest priority item, out of which it was allocated $70,000.
The biggest difference between the SPB requested amount and what it was allocated was the expenses for off-campus trips, only $6,000 out of the $22,000 requested.
Out of the 77 organizations, only 10 got the exact amount of funding they requested.
“We look at what we can give (to the organizations) and what will allow (the organizations) to put on an event for example,” Almeida said. “We had budgetary constraints this time and we couldn’t fund the entirety of the requests.”
The SGA budget applies to the association itself as well. Of the $35,200 SGA requested, the organization received $28,875.
Forty-one organizations received between $10 and $1,000 less than they requested.
Asian Student Alliance, Black Student Union, Gender Sexuality Alliance, International Student Association, Latino Cultural Society, Muslim Student Association, Christian Fellowship, Survivor Advocacy Alliance, South Asian Society and Women Empowered were all among those who received between $1,000 and $4,000 less than requested.
The Multicultural Student Leadership Council received $13,450 less from its $29,790 asked.
However, seven different organizations received no funding.
Those seven are African & Caribbean Student Union, Quinnipiac Association of Minority Engineers, Quinnipiac Criminal Justice Club, Foundation for Orphans, Public Relations Student Society of America, Stitch it Forward and Quinnipiac Democrats.
“Every organization that meets all of our requirements gets automatically funded up to $50,” Almeida said. “Those organizations essentially were not able to fulfill those requirements.”
Almeida also emphasized that SGA “treats every organization equally.”
“The reason for the funding mishap was due to an internal issue on our own end, that unfortunately led to us not meeting SGA’s requirements,” wrote Nick Fizzano, president of the Quinnipiac University Democrats, in a Dec. 12 statement to The Chronicle. “SGA dutifully and correctly followed their well-explained procedures, and we in no way lay blame at their feet.”
Almeida also said SGA has opened the special appeals process, where organizations will have the opportunity to apply for additional funding.
Both SGA-chartered and nonchartered, unfunded organizations — which includes student media, fraternity and sorority life and club sports teams — can apply for the special appeals funding, Almeida said.
During this process, organizations can request funding for up to two things out of the five available categories. These include on-campus events; off-campus events; any conference, competition or showcases; capital expenditures — which includes any item that can be used year-to-year — and other items that do not fit into any of the other categories.
Almeida said SGA allocates its budget a semester early and the budget for fall 2024 will be introduced at the end of the spring 2023 semester.
