By Dylan Hart
Funding for the Campus Movie Fest, which was eliminated when Student Government approved a budget for 2019-2020, has been restored.
At the recommendation of student body president Daniel “Kaeden” Kelso, the SG senate voted April 8 to give CMF $10,218.40 in leftover funds, plus $721.60 from an account used to take students to football games in Tampa.
“There were a lot of things we had to reduce, and CMF was one of the first to be affected,” Kelso said. “Because CMF was one of the first things to get cut, they’re the first thing to get money back.”
The action came after Kelso vetoed the senate’s original budget and noted the criticism that this year’s budget process generated.
“Since this budget process has been very difficult for all parties involved, I thought it would be best to allocate that toward student clubs and organizations,” Kelso said at the April 8 meeting. “A lot of concern that we have been given is that we at Student Government did not take as much of a reduction as everyone else.”
The final budget, which now goes to university administrators for review, still contains significant cuts for The Crow’s Nest (23.4 percent), Student Life and Engagement (10.5 percent), the Office of Leadership and Student Organizations (9.3 percent), and Campus Recreation (6.8 percent).
SG, which is allocated $70,704 in salaries, remains largely unaffected by budget cuts.
The $721.60 cut to SG’s athletic bus program will not significantly affect the program, Kelso said, because the original $5,000 allocated to the program was a “lump sum” used to pay for buses as needed.
CMF is an annual student film festival sponsored by the Harborside Activities Board. The organization pays the outside CMF Tour to visit USF St. Petersburg with camera and editing equipment. With the new budget, HAB will be able to host the fifth annual CMF next spring.
Kelso read a statement from HAB at the April 8 general assembly. The statement said that this year’s CMF, from February 20 through 26, had lower turnout than usual because many students were too focused on midterm exams.
“We noticed a 65-person decrease in students attending the premiere this year,” the statement said. “If these funds are secured, we will continue conversations with CMF to ensure that the timing of the event can happen earlier in February.”
This story was updated on April 20, 2019. A previous version of the story said that there was a 65-percent decrease in students attending the CMF premiere. It was actually a 65-person decrease.
