The Student Government Association announced a series of mandatory trainings for student organization leaders to learn about changes to the SGA allocations process as the body begins its transition to an event-based funding structure starting next fall.
The SGA passed the Financial Transparency Act last spring to restructure the current general allocations system, a semiannual process, to an event-based funding model where student organizations can request funding on a weekly basis for events throughout the year. Maya Renteria, the director of the SGA’s Legislative Budget Office, said the SGA and LBO will unveil a series of eight training sessions starting in January where student organization leaders can learn about the new structure and how to apply for funding under the change.
Renteria said the training series will be mandatory for at least one member of every organization that receives SGA funding to attend at least one of the sessions. She said the sessions will help students learn the difference between the new applications for event-based funding and what types of costs will fall under the new category of “operating costs,” like office items and long-term subscriptions like Canva. Both applications will be available for student organizations on the Engage platform.
“We know it’s a lot to adjust to, so we want to be able to provide as many opportunities for students, org leaders to come in and figure out what the switch is,” Renteria said.
The SGA’s current funding allocations structure includes a semiannual general allocations process that covers the majority of organization’s costs and a cosponsorship process where student organizations can request money on a weekly basis for additional costs. Renteria said the body’s transition to the event-based structure is “flipping” the amount of funding in the two budgets to give the cosponsorship fund, which will be renamed to event-based funding, more money to allocate to organizations weekly.
“That’s probably the biggest confusion, is just realizing, ‘Okay, it is the same process that we’re used to, it’s just named different and the amount that each gets is flipped,’” Renteria said. “But I think the trainings will definitely help with those issues.”
Renteria also said she will offer extended weekly office hours next semester so student organization representatives can ask questions in a one-on-one format with LBO leaders about the changes to the allocation structure.
Renteria said there are no restrictions on the amount or frequency at which student organizations will be able to request funding under the new system, but the current SGA bylaws restrict the amount the SGA can fund for “per person” costs to $10 for funding under cosponsorships. These costs determine how much money the SGA allocates to organizations for costs like food and transportation for events and are based on how many students will attend the event.
She said the LBO is looking to increase the allotted food funding amount to $15 per person when the SGA implements the event-based structure in 2025 because of rising costs in the economy.
SGA Sen. Jonesy Strell, the chair of the SGA Finance Committee, said he has attended student organization meetings this semester including for the Organization of Latin American Students to begin discussing the changes with students and answer questions about the transition. Strell said the sessions are mandatory so organization leaders know how to apply for the funding they need, and any student organizations who do not attend at least one of the eight trainings will be ineligible for any SGA funding for that allocations period under the new structure.
“By making it mandatory, although it’s strict, it has to be done to make sure that every single org knows the new changes that are coming,” Strell said.
Strell said the training sessions will increase student organizations’ general knowledge of the changes to the SGA finance system, but he foresees an issue with ensuring those entering leadership roles for the first time during fall semester 2025 are made aware of the training that previous presidents and finance chairs will receive this January.
He said because many organizations transition their leadership at the end of the year and over the summer, those entering the new positions might not be aware of the new system. He said he wants to find a solution to ensure new leaders are knowledgeable about how to request funding for their organizations.
“All of a sudden, not that the trainings were useless, but you just have a bunch of new finance people who don’t know about the new system,” Strell said. “So I don’t have a solution for that yet, but I am brainstorming ideas on how we can address that.”
Strell said the Finance Committee currently meets once a week to review and grant funding requests for the cosponsorship process, but he expects the number of requests to increase “significantly” under the event-based funding structure because it will be the main way student organizations will receive funding. He said the committee may increase their meetings to twice a week next year to account for the increase in requests.
Strell said the SGA will close general allocations requests Oct. 25 and will present the finalized allocations through a bill confirmed by the body’s senate Finance Committee at a full senate meeting in December.
SGA Vice President Ethan Lynne, who sponsored the Financial Transparency Act last year in his then-role as chair of the senate Finance Committee, said he noticed student organizations didn’t always use the entirety of their allotted general allocations budget but the cosponsorship fund “was always running out.” Lynne said the SGA reclaimed more than $100,000 in funding at the end of the fiscal year that was left unused by student organizations’ general allocations.
“That’s where we kind of looked at, ‘Okay, how can we shift this if the cosponsorship is being much more utilized, can we put much more of our resources into the cosponsorship fund,’” Lynne said.
