Clubs Face Further Budget Cuts

Clubs gathered yet again at the Undergraduate Student Government Senate meeting last Thursday to see the future of their clubs’ budget after having their line budget status reinstated at last week’s meeting.

According to the USG Financial Bylaws “a line budget is the account given to a funded organization for the academic year to be expended by it in accordance with the laws of the USG.” The line budget status allows clubs to request grants from USG for various events and materials the club might need.

A club’s line budget status can be revoked if the club fails to host one Student Activity funded event or fails to register with the Student Union and Activities by the end of the first week of each academic year.

Animated Perspectives, Meteorology Club and Kumdo Club all had their respective line budget statuses reinstated at last week’s meeting after having it revoked due to failing to comply with the new financial bylaws.

All three clubs saw a five percent cut in their budget at this week’s meeting.

The decrease in budget was proposed by Senator David Adams to “show some sort of responsibility on the club’s part.” Adams said clubs should face some sort of repercussions for not being able to follow the rules that USG claims to have effectively communicated to all clubs last semester.

“I don’t want to see clubs annihilated but there were clubs that had no problem with following the rules,” Adams said.

Animated Perspectives and Kumdo Club’s budget cuts were approved with a unanimous vote. Meteorology Club’s budget cut was approved by a vote of 15 – 1.

USG Senate is Against the New Academic Calendar

A new academic calendar has been created for SBU that would remove breaks for any holidays except those federally recognized. This new calendar has been published on the Registrar’s website and will be adopted beginning this fall.

According to Senator Anna Lubitz, President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr. secretly appointed four administrators to create the new calendar and those appointed did not consult with students, USG or Inter-Faith leaders. Because this calendar was created without permission of the senate or consulting students, USG voted to condemn the changes to the academic calendar in a 16 – 0 vote with one abstention.

USG also took a vote to condemn the creation of the new calendar, but under Vice President of Academic Affairs Adil Hussain’s advice, the senate postponed the vote until next week’s meeting, allowing them time to talk to administrators first before condemning the creation process.

Senator Lubitz, who presented condemning the creation of the new academic calendar to the senate at last week’s meeting, said “students need to be involved in the calendar making process” and “be an integral part of the committee” because “students should be heard in what they are involved in.”

Compiled by: Deanna Del Ciello