The Student Government Association must make difficult decisions on which budget appeals to pass before their March deadline, a fact that was undeniable during their Feb. 16 meeting consisting of a debate over WECB’s appeal. Their remaining appeals budget currently sits at around $25,000, which is not enough to cover the total appeal request cost of $82,684.
The subject of Friday’s debate was WECB’s appeal request for $10,444 to cover the costs of merchandise for student DJs, a vinyl project to promote Emerson artists, recording and sound equipment for WECB’s Los Angeles studio, and purchasing new technology for the Boston campus’s studio. Nandan Nair, the executive treasurer of SGA and member of the Financial Advisory Board (FAB), shared that parts of the appeal had already been rejected by FAB.
“As of right now, the FAB recommendation is to allocate $3,733,” said Nair. “The modifications that we made were to the office computer, but we cut the merchandise and the vinyl.”
The money for merchandise purchases, Nair explained, is supposed to come from an organization’s annual budget request, as organizations are expected to make those purchases every year. Appeals, he continued, are supposed to be for capital one-time investments.
WECB’s revised request is one of the smallest facing SGA.
Other appeals, such as QuadBall’s request for $20,000 and EVVY’s request for $42,000 demand a large portion of the remaining budget, meaning that SGA must be thorough in their approvals of all appeals.
Phoebe Alves, the spiritual life senator, was one of the first members to voice support for the approval of WECB’s appeal, citing the radio station as a feature that prospective undergraduate students find attractive.
“Emerson’s radio is something that, as a tour guide, we’re asked about a lot,” explained Alves. “I think having [the radio station] be state of the art would be good because it’s something that is heavily promoted.”
Martin Tran, the honors program senator, referred to the limited budget as a dissuading factor in granting WECB’s appeal, expressing concern about the appeal money for the Los Angeles campus.
“I don’t see why this couldn’t just be part of their annual budget request for next year,” he said.
Nair explained that SGA and FAB should try to differentiate between one-time and annual expenses when granting appeals. WECB’s new equipment and studio would not be eligible to be factored into their annual budget request for next year, meaning that they would have to appeal again next year.
The debate over the approval concluded with SGA’s decision to table the vote until their Feb. 23 meeting, when a member of WECB could be present to answer questions about the appeal.
The next item on the meeting’s docket was discussing the annual budget request meetings, which are being held March 2 and 3. The meetings are mandatory for each organization requesting an increase in the amount of money they are allocated for next year. The meetings serve for members of SGA and FAB to learn more about why the organization is requesting an increase in funding and where the money will go if allocated. All members of SGA are expected to attend a meeting to be properly informed when voting on annual budget requests later in the semester.
