Since the beginning of the semester, multiple organizations have asked Student Association for additional funding, all citing the same reason: their clubs were budgeted no money, despite last year’s e-boards submitting budgets.

Last year, former SA Director of Finance Miranda Kryskow revamped the way student organizations requested budgets. According to the current SA Director of Finance, Ryan Green, she met with the various clubs and organizations to explain the new online process and how they could request their budget for the 2019 – 2020 school year.

“Last year, Miranda did it on Google Sheets, and she’d share it with the president and treasurer, and they would get together and fill it out, and because it’s Google Sheets and they shared it with the SA account, it will reflect when it had been edited, who touched it, what changes had been made. That way it’s not as flunky with paper and can’t get lost,” Green said. 

He also explained he may re-add the paper element to the Google Sheets budget, as a backup to be stamped with the date and filed, so there will be no confusion for the next year.

With Outdoors Club, however, their budget seemed to be lost in the process, meaning they had only a few hours to submit a budget. It was a coincidence that the president was at the meeting when it happened.

“We submitted our budget on time, but I think it got lost in the process. We were not included in the final budget. I happened to be at the senate meeting where they were confirming the budget, because I was kind of on SA cabinet, and I noticed the Outdoors Club was not on the final budget,” Outdoors Club president Linden Merrill said. “The Director of Finance at the time made the executive decision to decide our budget and have the senate approve it on the spot, as the budget had to be finalized that day.”

Outdoors Club was not able to properly consider what costs they would need for this upcoming year, resulting in them asking the senate for additional funding. They asked for $1,000, and were given $500 out of the $20,000 contingency fund.

“Despite our budget decrease, we are still going to have an awesome time and send out as many trips as possible. That being said, we will not be able to upgrade gear as we wanted to. Members will also now have to pay 100% of the apparel costs, with the club subsidizing none,” Merrill said. “I thought the process was thought out and well-manicured. I appreciate SA’s attention and diligence when it comes to fixing the issue.”

Outdoors Club is not the only organization on campus with the same issue. Bowling Club presented in front of SA as well, since they were given no funds for this academic year, despite the club members saying their previous e-board submitted their budget on time.

“The president of Bowling Club last year came to me and the new e-board for this year and essentially, he [said], ‘There was a problem with the budget,’ and Student Association had emailed him and, apparently, we were just left out of the budget,” Bowling Club President Matt Poteralski said.

Poteralski said he reached out to other club e-boards, and discovered this had happened last year, as well.

Bowling Club had extra money last year, so for this year’s budget request, they cut down the amount they normally ask for to cover the necessities for the organization. They have yet to find out what amount they will receive, if any, so for the time being, the club is unable to bowl. Poteralski said he is trying to keep members in the loop about what is happening, and keeping them updated as much as possible.

“I just hope that it gets fixed as soon as possible. I get that mistakes happen, not every system is perfect. I just hope that we can get past this and get back to meeting with our club,” Poteralaski said.

For the clubs that are experiencing this sort of issue or struggling with budget cuts that occurred to them, Green is willing to help where he can.

“In my understanding of what SA is, it’s to be representative of this large student body. So our senators are supposed to not only represent and speak for, but also assist. They’re not just there to make a decision,” he said. “We’re here to help, not just cancel out or put them on a pedestal or in the ground. We can give them [fundraising] ideas, and it’s up to them to follow through.”

Photo by Stephen Novak | The Oswegonian