Issue:

The Students’ Association budget for student organizations was cut by $63,000 this year, which doesn’t seem fair to students because it affects them directly.

Stance: 

The Students’ Association had to make these cuts, but there are better ways to allocate the money based on past success with events.

The Students’ Association cut its budget for student organizations for the second year in a row. It was cut by more than $63,000, leaving student organizations with bare bone budgets.

The overall budget was $2.7 million, with more than $2 million going toward the Wellness Center and The Union. Such a great amount had to be allocated to these areas because they are highly-used student facilities.

This left about $500,000 left to 32 student organizations funded or partially-funded by SA. Other organizations can request money from SA through special allocations.

These 32 student organizations requested a certain amount from SA earlier this semester. The Hobo Day Committee requested $9,000 and got about $5,700 back. This only covers 14 percent of its total budget, according to 2016 Hobo Day Grand Pooba Corey Chicoine.

Six organizations asked for money and didn’t get any. In contrast, the University Program Council received 95 percent of their requested amount at $127,782.48.

We, at The Collegian, believe that although SA had to make these cuts, there are better ways to allocate the money. This includes looking at organizations’ past success with events using the money and student involvement.

Chicoine addressed SA at its Monday meeting about his frustration with how the money was allocated. He said that “fairness” shouldn’t be connected to how a budget is distributed, but based on an organization’s use of previous funds.

For example, Hobo Day is a highly celebrated event at SDSU and draws in a majority of student participation. Other organizations have fewer students attend their events but received an allocation closer to their request.

We believe that although the funding decisions could have been decided better with this philosophy, SA was gallant in their efforts to give each organization somewhat close to what was requested.

SA cut its own budget allocation by about $39,000. This was the largest cut out of all the organizations combined. It’s impressive they were willing to cut that much out of their own budget to limit cuts for other organizations.

The budget cuts couldn’t be avoided, and SA had to make the tough decisions of where to limit funding. Next budget season, The Collegian hopes SA adopts a different philosophy regarding what the students value.

The Collegian staff meets weekly and agrees on the issue of the editorial.

The editorial represents the opinion of The Collegian.