Mississippi State University’s Student Association will help students attend more conferences, hold more banquets and play more soccer games and other sports due to their recent allocations to over 60 campus organizations. “This year is a trial run. We will see who does what with their money and go from there,” SA vice president Sara Peters said.
With the increased budget this year, the SA is able to allocate a total of $11,000 to student organizations, a significant increase from the $2,000 allocated in previous years. At the Nov. 5 Senate meeting, the Appropriations Committee allocated a total of $10, 560 to student organizations ranging from residence halls to club sports teams.
“There were very few organizations we had to turn away, and there were various reasons for those,” Peters said.
Brent Tyler, chairman of SA’s Appropriations Committee, said no organizations were discriminated against and that the groups who did not receive money did not properly fill out the application.
“It was our goal to give money to as many organizations as possible, and I believe we did that,” Tyler said.
The Senate discussed whether it was best to give more organizations smaller amounts of money or fewer organizations more significant amounts of money.
“The budget came to the floor, and the Senate passed it as it was,” Peters said. “No one seemed to complain about the amount they received.”
Heather McDonald, assistant coach of the women’s club soccer team, said she was more than happy to hear that the SA had allocated money to help the soccer team again this year.
“The team has received money in the past from the SA, but never this much,” McDonald said. “I’m really excited about the additional money. Hopefully, we will be able to go to more tournaments next season.”
McDonald said the money will go toward referee fees, tournament expenses and membership fees.
Edward Sanders, president of Duggar Hall Association, was equally pleased with the $130 Duggar Hall received to purchase a new pingpong table.
“There is no recreation in this Hall, and since the Hall has received major budget cuts, we thought it was a good idea to request it from the SA,” Sanders said.
Sanders, also the Duggar Hall senator, said he hopes the SA can continue to give away this much money, if not more, in the future.
Nyerere Tryman NAACP vice president said there are over 300 campus organizations and he’s just glad SA could give the NAACP a small piece of the pie. The NAACP has already been able to use the money it was allocated for its annual fall banquet last week.
“Our banquet’s a great way to bring everyone together for fellowship and a good time,” Tryman said.
Requests for the SA’s allocated money can be used during the fall or spring semester. Peters said in a meeting last week with the leaders from student organizations, the SA suggested follow-up information be turned in within two weeks after the money was used and definitely by the end of the semester.
Follow-up forms include itemized lists that account for expenditures, copies of receipts and officer signatures. The purpose of the form is to keep groups accountable for the money they were allocated and to keep record of how the money was spent for future reference.
“This year the follow up process is a lot more strict because of the number of groups we are dealing with,” Peters said.
Tyler said the appropriations process was much more complicated this year as well. The combination of more requests and more money made it difficult, he said. In contrast to the 20 to 25 applications SA has received in the past, they received 72 or 73 this year.
“It’s a lot of work to go through that many applications and evaluate them,” Tyler said.
The SA’s Appropriations Committee consists of Tyler and eight committee members-all of who divided up the requests and ranked them according to need and request.
Peters said some groups were asking for thousands of dollars and many probably asked for more than they really need.
Tyler said that there was no set amount, but generally the most the Appropriations Committee allocated to one group was $300 and the least $100.
“We wanted to fulfill as many group’s needs and if we couldn’t completely fulfill their needs, at least help them do it,” Tyler said. “If they had a legitimate need we helped them meet that.”
Tyler hopes by this money being allocated to so many groups, MSU can be better-represented and benefited from student organizations.
Sanders said he hopes student organizations will include the fact that their SA made it possible to attend or host that certain event and that will in turn improve MSU’s SA reputation that much more.
There will be a spring date in which the remaining $440 will be allocated to student organizations. More information for applications will be available closer to the spring.
“I’m extremely pleased that the SA is doing what they can to help student organizations with the means they have, ” Tryman said.