USG weary of allocating its budget

Matthew McConkey
Daily Egyptian

The Undergraduate Student Government went into closed session Wednesday night to find out where the money had gone. With only $17,000 in its spring allocation fund, and several Registered Student Organizations wanting more money than was in the fund, the senators went briefly into closed session to find their accounting errors. USG failed to account for more than $1,000 that was allocated to two RSOs during the last meeting.

"The numbers I ran in the beginning of the week covered all expenses," said Andy Fruth, chairman of the finance committee. Despite USG's low general budget, USG President Tequia Hicks said extra money, which could cover if USG goes over budget, is in the organization's personal budget. The student government's personal budget goes toward travel and office expenses throughout the year, Hicks said.

Hicks said she expects to get all the money she is withdrawing from the personal budget by July 1 because the money left over from allocations made to RSOs will go back into the general budget, accounting for about $51,000. Hicks said this is the first time that she knows of the budget being so close to the red. Hicks said although some may think using all the money is bad, she calls it being efficient.

She also said USG has done a good job of informing RSOs about the organization because over the school year, the amount of resolutions passed has doubled from the previous year. During the meeting, USG allocated almost $17,000. Student Trustee Ed Ford said former senates have allocated money in different ways, such as proportioning money throughout the year and allocating money as they see fit from event to event.

Ford said this USG decided to divvy up money this year by the ladder. But he said the senate did not poorly allocate its funds. Senators also unanimously disapproved the proposed student fee increases for 2006 and 2007.

Ford said the University wants to raise the 2006 student fees after they had already been approved. He said if the student body is shelling out the money for fees, then the students should be in control of the money. "If we are paying for them, we should be making the decisions," Ford said.