FY20 SGA Budget Context

Have you seen the FY20 SGA Budget? Check it out!

HOW IT AFFECTS US:

What is the Student Activities Fee (SAF)?
  • SGA budget = Student Activities Fee
  • Students pay many fees that fund the institution, one of which is the Student Activities Fee.
  • SAF is not changing. And it hasn’t changed in 3? years.
How are student orgs being affected?
  • The total available money to all student orgs, through Finance Board, is increasing by $38k
Why did the Women’s Center receive a cut?
  • After conversations with the Women’s Center staff, they expressed a need for only $1500. The $1000 increase to the current $2500, which happened last year, was not made apparent to staff.
  • They are returning to their previous amount which is the amount they asked for this year.
Why did stipends increase?
  • Fighting for fair wages
  • We are affecting what we have control over. Last year, we increased the budget for (seb) to increase stipends. This year, we’re asking The Retriever to increase stipends.
  • Compared to other non-wage funded SGA’s within USM:
    • College Park bases its stipends by credit hour, but only provides stipends to officers who would parallel to SGA’s Steering Committee (President, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, Vice President for Student Organizations, Speaker for the Senate, Vice Speaker for the Senate, Chair of Finance Board, and Vice Chair of Finance Board)
    • Towson uses a wage-scale to determine its stipends
    • We are basing our stipends by credit hour to allow for stipends competitive with comparable wages.
Competitive and fair stipends
  • Based on time requirements and expectations on SGA officers, the position is inaccessible financially to many undergraduate students. Many SGA officers have already left due to financial reasons.
  • We’re making the position more equitable, and the goal is to have more people committed to working for undergraduate students.
What is the Center for Democracy and Civic Life?
  • They support:
    • STRiVE, ASB, BreakingGround, workshops, Tool Foundries, reflective journaling, political engagement events, and other student leadership development experiences
  • We’ve already historically funded these programs under a different name.
    STRiVE and Alternative Spring Break line items, essentially combined to form the Center for Democracy and Civic Life
Why did University Partners, like OCSS, Transit (Bikeshare and Arbutus Community (OCA Mocha), get a decrease?
  • If SGA continues to support new programs in their entirety, we cannot continue to develop new programs without increasing the SAF (the budget will need to perpetually increase).
  • We should be getting administrative support if they value undergraduate students.
  • OCSS:
    • Welcome Week & Good Morning Commuters
    • They have their own sources of funding, and the university should be demonstrating support and that they value the off-campus student community, as SGA has already done by funding it since 2016.
    • The SAF is to promote and establish programs and initiatives to support the undergraduate student experience in ways not already addressed by other fees.
  • Bikeshare:
    • A frequently used service!
    • We’re interested in institutionalizing the program by having Athletics primarily fund the program
  • Arbutus Community (OCA Mocha):
    • We’ve put in a considerable amount of the student dollar for single-time expenditures and are now waiting for a return on our investment.
What about The Retriever?
  • We proposed the $30k cut due to The Retriever’s reserves being 130%, amounting to $130k, of their operating budget. We don’t believe this to be an appropriate use of the student dollar.
    After conversations with leadership at The Retriever, we recognize that a $30k cut would be sudden and difficult to accommodate
    We are having ongoing conversations with The Retriever and nothing is finalized yet. The final allocation amount is pending an Memorandum of Understanding (or agreement) with The Retriever.
We would love to hear more questions or thoughts you might have about the SGA Budget!
CLICK HERE to submit them!