Growing concerns have been heard in the Student Association Senate about dwindling emergency funds as clubs are finding it more difficult to get the support they need to cover unexpected costs.
In a Senate meeting on Nov. 3, Senator Clayton Rozario said the group should be more careful about how it has been spending emergency money on clubs.
"We have a budget of only about $22,000, but we're on pace to spend anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000," he said. "I think we need to look at these clubs and make sure that they really need the money they are asking for."
The purpose of the emergency club fund is to cover unexpected expenses a club might encounter during the year, Rozario said.
According to Rozario, the Senate has been scrutinizing the applications of many clubs to ensure that their needs are indeed emergencies, but there's already a gap.
The Senate began the year with an emergency budget of about $22,500, and as of their Nov. 3 meeting, had already distributed half that amount.
SA Treasurer Anthony Burgio said this is not a new problem for the Senate, the problem existing last year, only to a lesser degree.
"The difference between this year and last is that we had about $30,000 then, and about $20,000 this year," he said.
According to Burgio, the disparity in budget from last year can be traced to SA's development of SA Entertainment, the former University Union Activities Board division of Sub-Board I, Inc., and to office updates completed this year.
Burgio also said the Senate's spending should not be a concern, because as the year progresses, the Senate will better learn its roles and abilities and become more prudent with distributing funds.
"At the beginning of the year, as you could tell by last meeting, there was an issue with far too many clubs even being scheduled to present before the Senate," said Rozario. "There needs to and will be better filtering of clubs that really do not have emergency financial concerns. Cheryl (Rozario, SA Senate chairwoman) will be learning how to run the meetings better too."
It is a consistent trend for the Senate to be more liberal with their funds at the beginning of the year, and that as the year progresses and the budget shrinks, the Senate reduces its spending, according to Burgio.
"I think that the senators appreciate that we have extra constraints this year," he said. "(SA has) grown to where we are stretching our limits, and we need to take that into account."
Some clubs are feeling the squeeze of these added financial constraints. The Roller Hockey Club went before the Senate in a recent meeting to ask for approximately $3,000 to cover costs incurred by raises in league fees, practice costs and new uniform requirements -- raises that were installed over the summer, when most clubs are not active.
Club founder and current advisor Mike Brennan, a first year business graduate student, said that the Roller Hockey Club received $1,100 from SA Senate, only a third of what they needed to continue to function this year.
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OWeOre really disappointed. Our league fee is already due, and we canOt even cover that,O he said. OWe need to fund raise, and we have, but we get $5,000 from SA at the beginning of the year, and it costs us $3,000 to reserve ice space just to practice. The only option we have is to have out of pocket costs for members, a practice that SA frowns upon.O
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Brennan said even though his club had raised $2,500 through fund raising since the beginning of the year, the Senate felt that they had not done enough to deserve extra assistance.
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OItOs just not a viable option to have to raise all this money for unexpected costs at the beginning of the year,O he said. OOne senator, Lorenzo Guzman, motioned to give us zero dollars. It is really hard and makes you think that there are few people who want to help you.O
