SGA Discusses Funding for Organizations

SGA financial meeting on Monday. (Photo by Bret Smith) 

By Bret Smith

The Coates University Center was the center of much debate last night as the Student Government Association had their last financial meeting of the semester.

Representatives from Trinity University Sponsored Organizations (USOs), including the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), Trinity University Latin Association (TULA), and Outside Recreation (O-REC) all gathered at the meeting to propose budget requests for upcoming events in this semester and the next semester.

The most debated item last night was funding for O-Rec, since the organization has already gone over their budget. "It became a situation of whether SGA should help reimburse them or if that cost should go to the general student population in the form of higher fees for O-Rec trips,” said Nick Santulli, Senator Emeritus and senior political science major, who now serves an advisory role for the SGA.

Several SGA members argued that the SGA should not reimburse school organizations for going over budget. Other SGA members suggested that O-Rec trips should be made more expensive to cover the costs. Ultimately, SGA decided to provide funding for all O-REC activities except for the cost of food, which is left to the participants of O-Rec trips to pay for themselves.

The RUF requested funds for their leaders to attend a summer conference to learn leadership skills, so they can better help the community outside Trinity. The RUF representatives requested a budget of $1500 and it was approved by the SGA. While there was not much debate over the funding for RUF, the same could not be said about TULA. The organization requested funding for the Primavera Fiesta Fest, an annual celebration promoting awareness of Latino culture in the Trinity community. There was much debate among the student senators over how many T-shirts the SGA wanted to fund for the celebration.

“You never realize people get so passionate about $15 T-shirts but they can and they are passionate,” said Santulli. SGA eventually approved funding for 25 T-shirts, even though TULA requested funding for 50 T-shirts.

SGA financial meetings occur once a month, which discusses USO's funding requests of more than $1500, said Amulya Deva, president of SGA and a junior double majoring in business analytics & technology and finance.

While this was the last SGA financial meeting of the semester, the SGA will continue to meet every Monday at 5:30 p.m. till the end of the semester.

Correction: Ms. Amulya Deva was mistakenly put as Amulya Davis. It has been corrected and we apologize for the error.