Like the U.S. government Pepperdine’s Student Government Association (SGA) is tasked with holding concern for public perception in every decision. At the Wednesday morning meeting several proposals were brought before SGA that tested the waters in terms of the organization’s true purpose.
Last week SGA passed a proposal that increased the student activity fee and reformed the student organization to focus on policy affairs and larger philanthropic needs on campus rather than just event planning. With the Student Programming Board (SPB) and the Inter-Club Council (ICC) absorbing more fiscal responsibility the SGA hopes to concentrate on greater campus issues instead of handing out small amounts of money to student groups.
The proof was in the pudding this past Wednesday morning when three different organizations came forward to request funds from SGA. The requests for money ranged from $2500 for the Alpha Phi sorority philanthropic event to almost $10000 from the SPB to plan Senior Ball.
During the meeting matters of the SGA budget were brought up briefly in order to vote and rearrange funds within the entire budget. An additional $10000 was voted on and transferred from the Special Programs fund to the general fund in order to accommodate the amount of requests that occurred in a single meeting.
Besides these few budgetary measures the discussion focused mainly on whether funding the specific requests actually benefitted a sizeable portion of the campus. Deciding how many students the Alpha Phi philanthropy or the Senior Ball would affect SGA finagled exactly what amount of money should be given to each organization.
It came as no surprise that the upperclassmen members of the governing body voiced full support for a SPB fund request to plan Senior Ball for this spring. In less than five minutes the proposal was voted on and passed to give SPB $9750 to plan the senior class event. Certain members humorously described that it was a kind gesture for the seniors almost like taking care of elderly people in the community.
SGA Vice President of Finance Travis Hunter was disappointed with the way that the group of representatives hastily voted on the matter before adequately balancing the budget.
“That $10000 for Senior Ball was almost a quarter of our SGA budget warned Hunter.
Senior members justified the decision by reminding the lowerclassmen of the student activity fee change going into effect this next fall. With the doubled fee, a much larger sum of money will be available to SGA in the coming years.
A few student representatives referred to this sum as a cornucopia” and assured the younger SGA members that there would be plenty of funds to use in future years.
Another fund request the Alpha Phi sorority philanthropic event was granted with an amended amount of $1000 instead of the proposed $2500. Members reasoned the funding decrease based on SGA’s limited philanthropy fund. Also SGA members explained that the revised amount would still allow the event to occur but perhaps without some of the additional costs like t-shirts.
SGA spent most of the meeting Wed. morning discussing budget appropriation. With the fee increase voted on last week SGA is hoping to avoid the exact meeting that happened this week: multiple requests for money and taking time to discuss minor details instead of major campus improvements.
It remains to be seen exactly how SGA will better attend Pepperdine’s needs with the “cornucopia” of funds next semester.