Claire Montgomery
Senior News Writer
When funding allocations for student organizations were sent out, some clubs realized that they had not received any information at all and thus had no funding for the 2019-20 school year.
“When we came back this fall, we realized we had never received a final budget and we contacted Julia Zimmer [dir. of Lowry Center & Student Activities],” said Oria Daugherty ’21, president of Greenhouse club. “She is in the process of working with Campus Council/Budget Committee to find new funds for us and several other clubs that had the same thing happen.”
Initially, student organizations submit their budget requests in the spring for the coming academic year, which are reviewed by the Allocation Committee. The Allocation Committee is made up of the “Chair of Budget Committee, the treasurer of the Student Government Association (SGA) and five students that were selected via blind application,” Halen Gifford ’21, member of the Allocation Committee commented. Gifford continued, “Clubs are able to appeal their allocated budget if they do not agree with Allocation Committee’s decision. The appeals are reviewed by Campus Council’s Budget Committee and then voted on again by Campus Council. Those clubs that choose to appeal come and have an in-person conversation with Budget Committee to justify their appeal.”
When asked about clubs that did not receive their budget, Gifford stated, “Allocation Committee reviews all the budgets that we are given from Student Activities. If a club turned their budget in and we did not review it, that is because Student Activities never gave it to us. I have no idea how the budget got skipped. I have been in contact with the club and I am trying to work with Campus Council’s Budget Committee and Student Activities to fix the issue.”
Daugherty added, “Apparently, the emails with the budget submissions were never received … so we weren’t allocated any money. It should be resolved in a few weeks.”
The Voice reached out to Zimmer multiple times, but she did not respond to questions.