Laura Haley
Chief Copy Editor
Campus Council (CC) has begun reviewing a new policy for the budget allocation process. The Council has been considering revisions to clarify the process since the fall semester and committed to revisions in a resolution passed after the Galpin Call-in. The policy was reviewed at the Council’s meeting on Feb. 8, and as of press time was expected to be put to a vote on Feb. 15.
Proposed changes in the policy include clearer guidelines for how student organizations request funds, encouragement of funding to be shared between groups and a requirement that groups report budgets from previous years when submitting new budgets.
The revisions will take place within the Budget and Allocations Committee. According to Ethan Barhan ’18, the Council’s budget chair, they will aim to largely address areas where student organizations have experienced confusion in the past.
“We needed [this change] due to the large number of student organizations that were very confused about what they could and could not request funds for [and] how much they could request for what,” Barham said. “Also, this confusion came from a lack of connectivity between [Student Government Association] SGA and CC in regards to where funding for certain events came from.”
Barham said that confusion on the latter issue stemmed from the fact that SGA used to approve funding for student events and that Campus Council has since assumed this responsibility.
As Campus Council works to propose legislation to implement these changes, their primary goals are to develop a set of specific guidelines and to promote connections between student organizations.
“[Our goals are] mainly to create an easier framework for student organizations to request funds and know exactly what they can and cannot ask for,” Barham said.
In order for this change to work, student organizations are now being enforced to report their budgets from past activities with the hopes that it will be easier to tell if funds are being spent unnecessarily.
The potential funding changes were strongly accepted by the Council according to Barham. Jordan Griffith ’18, chair of CC, praised the work CC has done as a helpful first step towards an overall revision of the budget process.
“I was extremely pleased with [the guidelines],” said Griffith. “And pending some changes, I believe they will accomplish the goals we set out earlier this year.”