Student Government Association and budget committee work to improve budget allocation process
Sarah Carracher
News Editor
For many of Wooster’s multi-ethnic student groups, the end of spring semester was marked by extensive budget cuts, reaching as high as 81.16 percent in the case of the African Students’ Union (ASU). In a relatively successful appeals process, however, many of the groups were able to make their cases to the budget committee, and funds were reallocated in favor of some of the most drastically affected multi-ethnic organizations.
With $544,119.04 requested from the student organizations but only $340,000 to allot, cuts were inevitable. Leaders of Proyecto Latino, Men of Harambee and the Black Student Association (BSA) noticed above-average cuts to their own groups and to other multi-ethnic organizations on campus, including the ASU, according to SGA and budget committee member Joe Weston ’16. While all student organizations were cut an average of 41 percent, multi-ethnic groups were cut by an average of 49 percent.
The 2012-2013 academic year marked the first time that budget responsibilities were given to the Student Government Association rather than Campus Council. The budget committee, which was chosen from a pool of applicants by SGA, consisted of three student government representatives and six non-SGA members.
“Because this was our first year handling the budgets, which was a very heavy job for a group of students to handle, we understood that it would be a learning process,” said SGA President Molly McCartt ’14. “We are now requesting any suggestions and comments from groups in order to help us better the process, which we understand did not run smoothly in its premier year.”
The budget application was confusing and the time slots for the appeals process quickly filled up, forcing the committee to reconsider various budgets and the allocation as a whole.
“The plan is that the budget process next spring will be more input-based…with groups coming in to guide us through their budgets ahead of our evaluations instead of after,” Weston said. “The more information we have as a committee, the more discerning we can be with regard to who gets what allocation.”
The budget process resulted in much tension between SGA, the budget committee and multi-ethnic student groups during the last weeks of spring semester. However, the ASU, BSA, Proyecto Latino and Women of Dene were granted more of their requested funds when given the chance to explain their budgets to the committee. Most notably, the African Students’ Union, whose request was originally cut by 81.16 percent due to their budget being a minute late and written with vague requests, was cut by only 50.76 percent in the final allocations.
However, the cuts to multi-ethnic organizations have been seen as a symptom of a larger problem on the Wooster campus. “It shows layers and layers of insensitivity and it’s a much bigger problem than just budget allocations,” Ngozi Cole ’15 said at a meeting of multi-ethnic students and budget committee members near the end of last semester.
SGA and the budget committee members have expressed similar concerns and hope for the problem to be remedied in this year’s budget allocation process. “As a group, this year we want to take special note and have better communication with multi-cultural groups that felt they were undermined or offended,” McCartt said.
“Both the Outreach and Diversity committee and the full body have made clear priorities of more interaction with multi-ethnic groups to try to address the sense of disconnect across Wooster that was expressed last year,” Weston said of SGA’s new efforts to increase communication between SGA and the student body.
“SGA and [the] budget committee are both looking at ways to address the campus climate for respect and value better this year, with particular attention to making Student Government and its membership more accessible and visible,” he said, expressing optimism. “So far this year I’ve seen reason to be hopeful about a genuine appetite for expanding SGA’s representation of the full campus and interacting directly with students.”