The Board of Cooperative Activities announced Thursday that the budget for next year will not be increased for any student organizations.
Co-Op approved a zero percent budget increase for 2013 – 2014 academic year.
According to Ben Motyl, Vice President of Financial Affairs, organizations and clubs can seek more funding in their budget in other ways. “We don’t want to increase the base budget, but possibly will look into incentive worksheets so organizations can seek up to a three percent increase for next year,” Motyl said.
Cathy George, SGA Business Manager, said that the worksheet is more or less a form of performance funding.“We will create a rubric and look at how well organizations follow the rules and spend their money,” George said.
Co-Op also approved the transfer of over $36,000 between University Program Board accounts.
The line item transfer for UPB accounts from Art & Entertainment to Speaker artist fees in the amount of $21,360 was approved.
Motyl said the Art & Entertainment position in UPB is currently vacant, so they are moving the money to artist fees inside the speaker budget for use this year.
Another line item transfer for UPB from Arts & Entertainment to Concerts artist fees in the amount of $15,605 was also approved.
Motyl said this was also because of the vacant position this academic year.
Brad Kovaleski, SGA and Co-Op Advisor, said that UPB is going through a board restructuring because of the vacancies this academic year, so money won’t have to be moved in future years.
Co-Op also approved that all stipends through the Board of Cooperative Activities be frozen at the current dollar value.
Motyl said that stipends are currently calculated by a percentage of tuition, and with this motion they would be help at their current level until further notice.
The funding of the Leadership Scholarship from the vending contract, $10,000 from the bookstore, and from the interest from the general service fee was approved by Co-Op Thursday as well.
According to Motyl, it was suggested by the Finance Committee that those monies be used for the scholarship.
Motyl said the budgetary reserves were currently at $165,806.20.
