Student Senate met Wednesday evening to hear from Trinity Robinson, Student Senate treasurer, who presented on behalf of the Senate Appropriations Commission, or SAC, over the current funding status for SAC.
SAC’s initial total balance was over $300,000 and is divided between multiple funds. As of now, the current balance of the SAC’s fund is over $200,000.
Robinson said SAC uses this money to fund various student organizations for events and other activities. They determine which organizations this money goes to through an evaluation process if the organization submits a request for funding.
“Our overall goal is for that number to hit zero just because we want to be able to provide student organizations with as much programming funds as possible,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that the “big three” organizations are the Black Student Cultural Programming Board (BSCPB), International Student Union (ISU) and University Programming Council (UPC).
“They are considered the top programs for programming for student organizations, so they are allocated 60% of SAC’s overall budget every year,” Robinson said. “So, we definitely want to make sure that they're doing their due diligence to student organizations.”
Some of the SAC fund is also allocated to the New Student Organization Grant, which amounts to 1% of the SAC’s total budget.
“Every new student organization that goes through the procedures they need to … receives $150 out of this budget,” Robinson said.
Following Robinson’s presentation, Senate moved to fill vacant positions. Ankita Bansode was appointed an Associate Justice to the Judicial Panel and Morgan Dorais was appointed Environmental Affairs Vice-Commissioner.
