Wednesday, March 12, 2008

SGA ties to manage CAB budget

Photo by Keith Whitcomb Jr.3/13/08

By Catherine Story
Business Manager


Kathryn Mozer, a senior Meteorology major, and SGA Sigma Zeta Beta Alpha club representative sent an e-mail urging SGA members to cut the CAB budget by $30,000.

“The advisors do not run student government we do. Remember that we all have a say and a voice,” Mozer said through e-mail to the other SGA members.

“I realized that something weird was going on,” Mozer said. “We are supposed to cut $20,000 from our clubs and organizations?”

CAB is asking for over $30,000 more than they did the previous year. All of the other clubs combined are asking for $3,000 more.

CAB’s budget during the 2007-2008 school year was $83,750. This coming school year CAB requested $119,500. That is a $35,750 increase from the previous year.

Mozer said that the other club and elected representatives could cut CAB during budgeting instead of cutting their own budgets.

“The clubs plan to cut $30,000 from CAB” SGA president Jonathan Maciel said.

“An hour before Kathryn sent her e-mail I sent an e-mail to Carol Moore and Jonathan Davis saying that CAB should automatically be cut down to fifty percent,” Maciel said. “The excess would go into the SGA general fund.”

This method would ensure that CAB did not dominate the money provided by the student activity fee. At the same time it would allow CAB to tap into the excess money if necessary.

“The thing about cutting CAB is, say they do get cut. CAB will always get 50 percent even if the figures are larger than expected,” Maciel said.

There are currently 12 out of 24 clubs who are getting less than they received last year.

“We are not complaining about them getting 50 percent. It’s when they’re getting a lot more than that,” Maciel said.

Budgeting is always a difficult time in the SGA and not every club is always satisfied.

“Stuff like this happens all the time during budgeting,” Maciel said. “Cuts happen all the time and everyone is going to get hit with cuts.”

Maciel said that the SGA would work smoother if there were more students involved

“We are all trying to do the best we can to recuperate before next year,” Maciel said. “The more representatives you have the less work each person has to do.”

Maciel said that the meetings would not run as long if there were more participants

“Logic says that if you meet less you meet longer,” Maciel said.

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