Budget proposals are due for each of the twelve school councils by mid-October. The council presidents discussed possible adjustments to their budgets at a meeting on Sept. 30.
Speed, nursing, business, graduate, law and public health schools all plan to propose increases to their budgets.
“We now take 80 students per semester, as opposed to the former 60 students per semester,” said Nursing School President Ruthie Wooten. “We are looking at a $1,500 increase in our budget.”
For the past two years, the Speed School Council’s budget has remained the same. They also look to increase their budget with increased enrollment.
“My freshman class was 300, and this year’s class is 550,” said Speed School Council Vice President Katy Ashby. “Speed School is probably going to ask for $5,000 more, at least. We right now absolutely stretch our budget to the max.”
“College of business has grown by 23 percent this year, so at all of our events we always run out of food because we have so many more students,” said Megan Ebenschweiger, college of business council president.
Some council presidents expressed concern over poor communication about the programs that take up much of their budget. The College of education had difficulty getting members to attend meetings.
“I had our first full meeting last week and nobody showed,” said Bridget Donoghue, education council president.
Jonathan Gentry, school of music president, said that he has received no guidance about his position from the past presidents. With this year’s budget, he will attempt to bring a coffee station and outdoor seating to the School of Music.
“I know that myself and (vice president) Amelia have talked about actually using our money other than ‘Hey guys, here’s pizza. We’re SGA,’ because that is what it has been” said Gentry.
Donoghue also voiced concern over the outdated SGA website. The School Council page on SGA’s website still lists last year’s council presidents, contact information and meeting times. Students may have a difficult time contacting their SGA representative because of this outdated information.
