SGA Passes Budget For 2016-2017 Academic Year

Frostburg State University’s Student Government Association has passed a $161,444 budget for Fiscal Year 2016-2017.

This budget represents about an $8,000 decrease from its 2015 budget, which totaled at $169,562.

SGA Treasurer Nick DeMichele said that SGA can only allocate 95 percent of its projected revenue raised through the student activity fee. This year’s estimated student activity fee revenue is $175,520.

FSU undergraduates pay a $316 student activity fee. $45 of that is allocated to SGA, according to data provided by Interim President Tom Bowling in April 2015.

SGA’s budget decreased from $64,331 in 2015 to $62,854. SGA’s administrative assistant, Kathi Perkins, received a cost of living-based salary increase, and SGA increased funding for travel to conferences and seminars. It has cut its funding for “Springfest,” and it has continued to not fund SGA mixers. Last year, SGA had $3,000 for Homecoming, but that money has been moved to an overall Homecoming fund.

Saferide’s budget increased from $28,890 to $30,476.25 to support the minimum wage increases in the state of Maryland, an increased stipend for team leaders, an increased staff development stipend, and an increase in the cost of phones.

A $14,000 Homecoming budget has been created for a “mechanism, likely in the form of a committee, to oversee homecoming events and distribute funds,” according to SGA’s Student Activity Fee Allocation Report. This committee is likely to include representatives from SGA, Black Student Alliance (BSA), the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, University Programming Council, Greek Life, and the Lane Center Technical staff, the report said.

This funding isn’t necessarily new, as it had been included in other budgets. Now, however, it is listed in one line item to be allocated by the committee.

BSA alone was charged with organizing Homecoming in 2015, and it received $10,700 to do so.

Largely due to the reallocation of the Homecoming funds into its own budget, BSA’s budget saw a $9,000 reduction from $37,790 to $28,790. However, the line item for educational lectures increased from $5,000 to $8,600 and the line item for the “Honoring Our Legacy” event more than doubled from $2,500 to $5,200.

SGA’s account for event funding saw an $8,000 decrease, from $38,550 to $30,623.74. Again, this decrease is reflective of the decrease in the expected student activity fee revenue.