Student Senate Finance Committee approves new equipment funding

The Student Senate Finance Committee (SSFC) has made the decision to use $12,959 of surplus student fee money to fund the purchase of equipment for student organizations.

The Student Senate approved the allocation of up to $30,000 for the committee to spend several months ago.  The SSFC decided that it only needed $12,959, which the Student Senate approved at its weekly meeting Tuesday night.

Requests that the committee granted include new computers for the Student Voice, a new laptop for Dance Theatre, new computers for Association of Computing Machinery, new volleyballs for the men’s and women’s club volleyball teams and new equipment for the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams.

Students pay 10 separate segregated fees each year for a total of about $1,000 to support various programs on campus. One of the 10 segregated fees is set up specifically to support the 163 student organizations on campus.

Each year a spending budget for the Leadership Development and Program Board, along with its seven sub-committees, is determined by taking the projected number of incoming students and multiplying it by student segregated fees to come up with the amount of money that they will use to budget for the upcoming school year. The left over money is put into the University reserve surplus account, which is where the $12,959 will be taken from.     
                                                                                                                                                                                   
Student Organizations Coordinator Jon Levendoski said that the number of incoming student is usually projected a little lower than the actual number that will attend the coming year to ensure that over budgeting does not occur.

“The enrollment will most likely be higher than what has been projected so the surplus goes into the University reserve,” Levendoski said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Every few years the SSFC decides to take money from the surplus account to use for one-time funding of equipment for student organizations.

Student Senate agreed to allow the reserve account to be used to fund possible capital purchases. A one-time funding committee of eight students was appointed by Student Senate to handle the matter. 

Student organizations could request that a portion of the money to be spent on them by submitting a capital equipment request form. These forms were due April 17. 

SSFC looks at the requests and decides which ones to approve. They look at things such as the amount of the request, whether the request is reasonable and whether or not it violates any rules such as a request for personal items for individuals.

One-time funding chair and Student Senate Finance Director Dustin Pfundheller said that the committee looks at whether the organization needs the items requested.

“We essentially look at how fulfilling the request will benefit the club and the University,” Pfundheller said.

The funds will go to the financial officer of the student organizations to be used whenever they wish.