Student Government passed the 2011-2012 Activities and Services fee budget on April 6. SG’s budget decreased about $4,000 between the current year and next year, after increasing almost $30,000 from the 2009-2010 school year.
In 2009-2010, paid SG members made a combined $30,532. That number increased to $56,250 for the 2010-2011 year. Next year’s budget allocates $54,725 for SG salaries.
SG President James Scott said that the salary increase after the 2009-2010 school year allowed for SG members to get paid more accurately for the amount of time they work, as well as adding summer pay for paid SG positions. The increase also allowed for six new paid SG positions beginning in the 2010-2011 school year.
“We work a lot more hours than we get paid,” Scott said. “Having been in SG, the [new] salaries truly allow SG to work more hours a week, trying to get the pay closer to what students were putting in.”
Scott’s vision was to get SG and students more involved on campus.
“The idea is to broaden impact, empower students to go out and do more things, and increase culture,” Scott said. “Increasing salaries empowered SG to go out and do more. Involvement this year campus wide and the impact this year was proportional to increase in pay.”
While most student organizations received increases to their budgets from SG to start the 2010-2011 school year, Scott said decisions are always hard since they involve student money.
“Every year, some student life entities will take a hit, and each year there’s a revenue increase,” Scott said. “The only cuts [in the 2010-2011 budget] were to Crow’s Nest and recreation. All numbers are fluid. There are overall increase and decreases.”
Campus recreation had a $63,380 budget in 2009-2010. Its budget in 2010-2011 was $55,925, and the amount for next year increased to $61,550. The Crow’s Nest went from $46,835 in 2009-2010, to $22,855 in 2010-2011. The paper’s budget for the coming year is $32,000.
The budget for 2011-2012 did not have as sizeable of a change as the year prior, but SG salaries took a slight decrease. Jovanna Guevara, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said a few salaries were cut based on performance.
“Most of the SG salaries recommended by the Executive Branch for next year did not change, but I felt some needed to be cut based on my evaluation of this year’s executive branch,” Guevara said. “When appropriations presented the budget to the full senate, it included cuts to certain positions. I felt that some officers and directors did not fulfill their duties as expected, so their pay should be cut. Only one position was restored to the Executive’s recommendation and the others stayed with the Appropriations recommendation.”
Guevara’s committee was in charge of presenting its recommendation to the full senate after talking with the department heads of Student Life. She said she is satisfied with the overall budget that was approved.
“The committee has worked very hard in building consensus and the General Assembly did the same,” Guevara said. “Although I would have liked to see some departments get more of a jump in their budget, this was a compromise between what everyone felt was a priority and what we want to see for the future of the campus.”
Story also by Robbie Crowley, campus & beyond editor ’10/’11
