SGA should make cutbacks with the rest of clubs

With such drastic budget cuts to education in New Jersey and tuition costs rising, the SGA budget raises questions among the Whit editorial staff. The numbers – and their given explanations – simply do not seem to add up.

While some of SGA’s own budget allocations seem to go down, the SGA general account went up by roughly $7,960, making up for all other possible losses the organization might have felt. SGA made it appear at the Senate meeting that they cut 5.696% from the overall budget from last year to this year, when in fact the cuts came from the overall asking amount made by each organization.

According to the 2010-11 budget, which was passed at the Senate meeting this past week, SGA awarded themselves more money then they asked for. Under the SGA general account, SGA asked for $16,500 and managed to give themselves $17,917.76, more than $1,000 more than they asked for. It is also roughly $7,960 more than it put in the same account last year.

What is the SGA General account? According to SGA’s President-Elect Jon J. Vogel, it is used for printing supplies, if a computer breaks, T-shirts for certain events and any other way they deem a proper use for the money. Yet the same things that fall under the SGA general fund fall under the PR budget.

So, in total, SGA need almost $25,000 to buy t-shirts and a possible computer? Every other club must give a detailed list of what they anticipate to spend their SGA money on. Shouldn’t SGA be required to do the same for each one of its accounts? How you can go about giving yourself more money than you say you need?

In addition, SGA lists $3,000 for a copier within the budget. This price has not changed year to year, even though it is an unnecessary waste. It might be understandable if SGA was buying a new copier, but the money allocated is going to printing and copying papers such as Senate reports and Miscellaneous Disbursement Voucher (MDV) forms.

The Rowan Television Network lost roughly $13,400 in comparison to last year. Dance Extension lost roughly $8,553, The Gallery lost $6,439 and Venue lost roughly $11,265. The Whit, which lost a mere $3,879.68 in comparison to these clubs from last year to this year, thinks the discrepancy between the large cuts some clubs are feeling and SGA’s own increases is unfair.

We understand times are tough and that the SGA tried looking at the whole picture before allocating funds for student clubs. Still, they made noticeable errors by continuing to allocate themselves more money when they should have been making sacrifices like the rest of us.