Budget Allocation: Dollars and Cents

Money is not everything, but without funding from the University many student organizations would not be able to function.
Organizations must be registered and only organizations those “directly benefits or serve a large segment of the student body,” receive money from student activity fees according to the University’s Campus Life Business Office’s Web site.
Isis Men-Nefer, vice president of the Black Affairs Council, serves as a member at large for the SGA All All -Campus Allocations Committee. “I represent the voice of many of the multicultural organizations such as those in the Office of Intercultural Affairs and its important that we make sure that organizations receive adequate funding.”
There are over 500 registered student organizations and according to the Original Budget Summary by Fund Source for the Fiscal year of 2009, the money collected from student activity fees is approximately $11.3 million however not all organizations receive equal portions of that money.
“We have about 300 organizations that receive funding out of the more than 600 that are registered,” said Jerry Anthony, assistant director in the campus life business office.
Anthony said that many special interest organizations such as religious, political groups and greek organizations do not receive funding because they do not serve a large segment of the University.
The amount of money received also depends on the size of the organization, with smaller organizations often receiving less money because they have small membership numbers. Georgia Daze, which hosts accepted minority students for a weekend visit to the University.
“We don’t receive from student activities fee, so we receive money to operate from departments on campus such as the Department of Housing and the African-American AACCC,” said Erika Kristen Brown, recruitment chair for Georgia Daze. “We just started implementing dues because of budget cuts, so right now we ask for $5 from students who participate- we definitely need more money.”