Each quarter, Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government creates a budget, which includes all anticipated expenses for the quarter as well as funds for the Senate to give to student organizations. The 2009-10 Fall Operating Budget, approved Wednesday, is exactly $75,616.25.
“This fall budget comes in under the past two or three years from what we can tell and I’m really proud of it,” said USG President Ben Anthony, a fourth-year in international business administration and political science. “I started as budget and finance chair and we try and be as responsible as possible with our money.”
USG is, in fact, so responsible with their money that the Senate debated the budget bill for more than a half hour before deciding that the $4,000 under “Miscellaneous,” in the “President and Vice President” section of the executive budget, did not violate USG bylaws. Furthermore, “Ben’s Veto Stamp” was stricken from the budget, eliminating $25, because senators felt it was unprofessional and unnecessary.
Passage of the autumn budget means that student organizations can apply to the USG Senate for funding supplemental to what is given by the Council on Student Affairs. Ideally, CSA is an organization’s main financial supporter but they have very specific qualifications that sometimes make it difficult for organizations to get money from them.
“We had a bill last week to fund buses for transportation for A Very Sharey Halloween, which is [Sigma Phi Epsilon’s] really successful philanthropy program,” Speaker of the Senate Anna Yonas said.
“Hundreds of students participated but CSA can’t pay for that, so USG is able to step in and fill the holes, and that’s what we use our senate funding for.”
USG has set aside $12,000 to be distributed to official, registered OSU student organizations throughout Fall Quarter, with a maximum of $1,500 per event.
Organizations requiring financial aid should approach a USG senator to get the process started, which takes about two weeks. They should also be aware that USG reimburses the organizations, so it is important to keep receipts.
“All student organizations are encouraged to approach us,” said Yonas, a fourth-year in political science and history. “We don’t want it to be just the really big organizations getting funding, because we recognize that student organizations with 30 members can put on an incredible event for the entire student community and they might need extra funding as well.”
