In the last week, the Undergraduate Student Association Council had to completely revamp the allocation of Student Organizations Operational Funds to 161 different student organizations, after astronomically high requests from over-eager groups.
The reformulation of the allocation came when groups began requesting up to one third of USAC’s total budget for student group operational funding. The sum of funding requests made by groups came to over $1 million dollars, for which USAC only has $127,000 to divvy up.
There were many holes in the formula used to determine funding allocations.
With the absurd amounts of money requested, USAC had to somehow reduce the amount. They attempted to scale down each allocation by 90 percent, but this resulted in impractical allocations.
Some groups were only allocated $8, where others were granted up $5,500. It was seemingly the case that the scores from their applications had nearly no impact on these numbers.
It was simply a game where those who asked for more would receive more, with minimal consideration of the merit of their request.
Commendably, USAC recognized the problem and then integrated a cap, which forced the allocations to numbers more similar to last year.
Though it remains to be seen whether or not this temporary patch will be the best method for future years, the cap that USAC has instated for this year should continue. To deter student groups from overshooting, USAC should disclose early in the process that there will be a cap, so groups refrain from requesting the entirety of the budget in hopes for more money.
Additionally, student groups should be reasonable in their funds requests. As part of the application process, they should thoroughly explain any increase in requests for money.
Accounting information of past years should be shown as evidence: where is this money going? Is it reasonable to ask USAC to pay for these expenditures?
These groups must be held accountable for their spending and fiscal responsibility needs to be recognized.
Most importantly, groups need to be fair to themselves and to each other. Asking for outrageous amounts of money is a waste of time and offensive to groups who take their funding and the entire process seriously.
While the number of student groups who applied rose from last year, many groups still need to take the initiative to understand the funding process so that they too can participate, thereby ensuring fairer funds distributions to such groups.
There are 600 student groups on campus who are eligible, and they need to know about the funds available to them and take responsibility in applying for these funds.
Before disappearing into the oblivion of summer, new student leaders need to contact the Center for Student Programming immediately after the academic year ends with updated contact information, so that they can be notified of the application process for SOOF funding.
Neither CSP nor USAC should have to monitor the participation of so many groups, especially during the havoc of club turnover.
Although past years have allowed and even pressured groups into overstating their funding needs, lets eliminate this “gaming of the system.”