Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SRSGA) met Monday for a formal meeting where they passed a finance report consisting of over $30,000 to eight student organizations.
Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Alexis Gish moved to approve the finance report, which sparked discussion among the senate before passing.
The finance report included two conference grants. Music Therapy requested $500 to assist five students in funding their entry fee to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association Conference, greatly deducting the total out-of-pocket cost for each student.
Gender-inclusive national honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi requested $449 to send a representative to a mandatory conference in June, which was approved to be taken from next year’s fiscal conference grant budget.
Six additional funding requests were placed by organizations on campus.
Inline Hockey requested up to $12,000 to attend their national tournament in California. The money granted by SRSGA would help the team fund their national bid, plane tickets and an Airbnb for the 12 players. According to the report, Inline Hockey’s original funding request was $50,000.
Club Golf and Rugby both requested funding to participate in the spring season. Club Golf requested $3,358 to cover entry fees for 12 students to participate in three tournaments this spring, while Rugby requested $1,800 to cover four tournaments.
Black Action Society (BAS) and International Club both requested funds from SRSGA to assist in travel costs for their annual trips.
BAS requested a total of $9,052.50 to cover the cost of a bus rental for 56 students to travel to Atlanta for their annual cultural trip. According to the report, BAS presented a full breakdown of expenses, funding and where funds were being spent. The organization has held fundraisers throughout the year, and the students attending will pay an out-of-pocket cost of $96 each.
International Club requested $3,145 to help cover expenses so students may travel to Buffalo, New York. The club is using the remaining $855 in their budget to rent a bus that will cost $4,000 and asked SRSGA to cover the difference. The students attending will be charged approximately $50 to help cover the trip’s cost of hotels and meals.
The combined costs of both conference grants and funding requests from these eight clubs came to a total of $30,944.50
College of Liberal Arts Senator Amanda Brock, who abstained from the vote, reminded the senate that they only had $75,000 to work with for the rest of the semester.
“We are just halfway through the semester,” Brock said. “We have many more weeks and many more clubs that may need some funding.”
In response to Brock, Vice President of Finance Nikole Husnick explained that the spring semester is expensive due to conferences and clubs going to national tournaments. She said that all of the clubs who submitted their funding requests had exhausted their budgets.
“The clubs came with all of the documentation needed, they talked to us, and we feel the senate can vote on it,” Husnick said.
SRSGA President Hannah D’Egidio added to the discussion and said that while the senate should be wise when voting on funding requests, the finance committee “does a really great job at managing what we have and allotting what we can.”
“Even though we are spending large amounts of money, this is spread over quite a few clubs,” D’Egidio said. “We are here to give students the best experience possible, so it’s very important that we support our students.”
Two motions, one to approve the proposed amendments to the SRSGA Constitution and Bylaws, and one to approve the Judiciary Branch article of their constitution, were tabled and will be brought back to the floor for discussion at the next formal meeting.
