The Student Government Association (SGA) is considering investing unused student organization funds from the “Student Impact Fund” into Emerson’s endowment; it would be the first donation from the legislative body to the college in over a decade.
At the Nov. 22 general assembly meeting, Executive Vice Treasurer Angus Abercrombie introduced a contracts bylaw that creates a donor agreement. If passed, it would allow SGA to control the returns, which is the revenue made from investments. There are currently no bylaws for how SGA can enter into a donor agreement.
“When student organizations don’t spend their entire annual budget, the remainder comes back to SGA,” said Abercrombie in an email statement to The Beacon. SGA then redistributes the remaining funds for other needs. These include appeals, the student impact fund, and other outside needs of the annual budget process, such as the EVVY awards.
Many student organization funds returned to SGA during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic when group meetings and classes were restricted, leaving around $1.3 million set aside for “Student Impact.”
Abercrombie also said that SGA wants to convert the funds it was left with into recurring revenue, where “we’d expect around 4% of whatever we put in to be available every year, forever,” he wrote in the statement.
Endowment income is “long-term financial support for Emerson College,” according to the college’s website. SGA has previously contributed to the college’s endowment in the 1990s with a small scholarship, according to Abercrombie, but it was not able to be sustained.
“It’s important to think about future years and future students,” said Josue Velazquez, SGA director of communications, at the Dec. 6 meeting. He noted how the college’s endowment will help SGA use its current funds to invest, and not use the entirety of funds.
At the same meeting Executive Treasurer Oliver Katz called the move “an ethical aspect of wanting to invest in the future of the Emerson students.”
Levi Armstrong, class of 2027 council president, notes how student organizations have faced budget cuts. “I’m fortunate enough to be in an organization that has enough funding, but some of them need so much money, and they’ve been cut by large margins,” said Armstrong.
“It’s only fair that money that came from previous students doesn’t just advance us but all students,” said Olivia Decesare, SGA executive secretary, at the Dec. 13 meeting. “Additionally, we will ensure that no [other student governments] forget about these funds in the future.”
President Nandan Nair at the same meeting, said “I would like to be mindful of the fact that we are endowing for the long-term, but we also don’t want to make all the decisions for everyone forever.”
Internal affairs and the treasury of SGA are working to do more internally before coming back to the general assembly, Abercrombie wrote to The Beacon. “We wanted [general assembly] to be involved from the start, hence the very early conversations.”
Abercrombie said SGA is optimistic that a final vote will be taken by the end of the spring semester.
