The Undergraduate Student Government approved its 2009 fall budget of $254,244 Sunday, Oct 11.
The largest part of the budget, $120,000, goes to on-campus clubs and organizations, an increase of $27,000 from last year. The rest is divided between external expenses ($50,600), internal expenses ($50,590), class councils ($17,000), general contingency ($10,134) and committees ($5,900).
Class council budgets also increased while internal expenses and general contingencies decreased.
Brady Narloch, USG vice president of financial affairs, said the finance committee increased funding for clubs and organizations due to the increasing number of requests and growing number of clubs. Narloch also said that class council budgets rose so the council can take a more active role on campus this year.
Internal expenses include the USG’s own expenses such as promotional material, special events and executive board stipends. Class council budgets are used at the discretion of class presidents and class councils. External expenses are fixed and consist of transfers to STAR and Campus Life.
Special elections were held for two positions at this week’s meeting. Jessica Root was elected freshman residential senator and Derek Michalski was elected transfer senator.
Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu
What exactly does USG do other than allocate the student activity fee? What are these special events that they put on? What kind of stipends do they receive? Why does USG need stipends? I think it would be interesting to know why USG needs $50.5k while the rest of the 90+ clubs split $120k.
Internal Expenses include Tommie Taxi, the Readership Program, Party in the Library, Homecoming Activities, the State of the University Forum, etc. These are things which are done for the benefit of the entire student body, so I apologize if the account “Internal Expenses” was misleading.
The Special Event Contingency within the Internal Expense account is a reserve fund used primarily for when other clubs/orgs come to USG and wish to collaborate on an event for the entire student body.
The USG Executive Board receives a Stipend of about 170$ every other week for when the school year is active. We are required to perform at a minimum 10 hours of time on USG each week- it usually ends up being much more. The stipend is to a) ensure that we are doing our job professionally, b) compensate us for time we otherwise could have spent at another job, studying, etc.
A final note on club allocations: the budget is flexible. If it is necessary to allocate more than 120k to clubs/orgs based on their requests, I will not hesitate to find ways to allocate more money to them.
I hope this answers Mr. Miller’s questions. For more information feel free to visit our website at http://www.stthomas.edu/usg, talk to your USG representative (roster available online), or stop by our office in MHC111.