SGA budget allocations show major cuts for clubs

Next year, some Rowan clubs will be tightening financial belts due to SGA budget cuts.

The SGA is giving a total of $959,996.48 to sanctioned clubs, including itself. Last year, the budget totaled $925,000. The SGA is sanctioning and funding seven new clubs, totaling $10,043.38.

This past year, the SGA gave itself about $189,000. Next year, the group is getting about $195,000.

“Some organizations lost some funding, other organizations gained funding, but none of the financial ‘cuts’ were directly related to the budget cuts in education,” said John J. Vogel, incoming SGA president and current chief financial officer.

SGA took minor budget cuts as a group, but some of its areas saw increases.

“The salary budget, the tuition budget and the legal account cannot be changed,” Vogel said. “The funding of tuition went up because of the 4 percent increase of tuition.”

However, the SGA’s general and public relations budgets saw significant increases.

This academic year, the SGA’s general budget was about $10,000. Next year, the account will hold about $18,000.

According to Vogel, the general account is used for operational expenses, such as supplies, overdrawn accounts and other miscellaneous expenses.

“For example, this year our VP’s computer went down, so we purchased another one,” Vogel said.

Vogel also said the general account is used for making T-shirts for Rowan United, food for Senate meetings and business cards for executive board members.

According to Elizabeth Kolakowski, public relations director for the SGA, the public relations fund is used for many of the same things, including food for senate meetings, business cards for executive board members and T-shirts. That budget increased from $4,600 to about $7,100.

“The PR budget funds the following: all the printing of fliers, banners, newsletters, brochures and information products for all SGA events and announcements,” Kolakowski said. “It also covers business cards for executive board members to help with networking, Senator of the month awards, food for the Senate meetings, promotional items that include T-shirts for senator of the month, Holiday Helper and Back to the Boro, Board member polos, table stands for fliers [and] announcements and then supplies to create bulletins and banners.”

Vogel said the overlaps may look like they are the same thing, but the budget increases have to do with future plans the SGA has for itself.

“The PR budget last year was used for the 100 T-shirts that SGA purchased in general, but not the Rowan relief T-shirts, Rowan relief bracelets and Rowan united T-shirts,” Vogel said. “Duplicating is often shared between the accounts depending on what type of duplicating is being done, and who is doing it. Next year, however, SGA will be taking on a marketing initiative to boost the overall exposure of the organization.”

The SGA also has a $3,000 copier budget.

“[This money covers] all copier-related expenses, paper, ink, any repairs, all copier related things. We have to photocopy virtually every document that comes through our office for record keeping purposes,” Vogel said.

Vogel said the SGA had a hard time making cuts to other groups, because as a whole, the student clubs asked for nearly $1.3 million. Vogel said the SGA only had $960,000 to give out.

“We went through as a group after every presentation and gave what we thought people deserved. For example, if you asked for $1,500 you got it, if you asked for $30,000 and you deserved $20,000, you got $20,000,” Vogel said.

Among the organizations taking the largest hits are the Rowan Television Network and the Student University Programmers, compared to what each group asked for and received during this academic year.

This academic year Rowan Television Network received $37,000. Next year, the group is receiving a little more than $23,000.

This year, SUP received $300,000. Next year, the group is receiving about $309,000.

Although it looks like SUP gained finances compared to what it asked for last year, it lost a significant amount when looking at what it asked for during the budget hearing.

“Once we applied the budget cut, it was SUP losing $18,682.88. But the club that received the biggest cut of funds from last year to this year was RTN, who lost [the most].” Vogel said.

RTN lost more than $10,000 when compared to this year’s budget.

Other clubs asked for much more from SGA this year, but did not receive the increase and instead maintained their current budget.

Neither SUP nor RTN could be reached for comment on the matter.

Still, some clubs like SGA increased their funding for the upcoming academic year. Engineers Without Borders received $3,325 previously, and will receive around $6,600 next year.

But no organization experienced an increase as considerable as SGA’s general and public relations budgets.

“We clearly knew everyone would not get what they wanted,” Vogel said.