Brian Welsh, vice president of financial affairs and senior political science major, is responsible for allocating all on-campus clubs and organizations the money they request.
“As far as that goes, I oversee all the internal money flow within the organizations, keep in contact with all clubs and organizations on campus about their budgets and help recognize new clubs and organizations on campus,” Welsh said.
The money for all the budgets allocated to the different clubs and organizations comes from the student activity fee that every student pays.
Before his executive board position, Welsh started out as a senator last year and says the difference between jobs is time.
“All my days pretty much revolve around SGA now that I’m on the executive board,” Welsh said.
Currently, Welsh said he is in his busiest time of the year.
“Right now, everything’s based toward budgeting for next school year,” Welsh said. “What happens with budgeting, it’s when every club and organization on campus that’s recognized through us is eligible to submit to us for their next school year’s budget.”
As an executive board member, Welsh has a committee; his committee brings new clubs and organizations in to make sure what they’re applying for fits into SGA’s finance policies. Welsh said the committee also looks at new organizations to make sure there’s not too much overlap with an already established organization.
However, the main focus right now is clubs’ and organizations’ budgets for next year.
“We don’t want to hear anyone say, ‘I wish I could’ve had a budget through SGA,'” Welsh said.
While most recognized clubs receive a budget, you don’t need one to receive money later down the road.
“If they are recognized by us and don’t have a budget, the nice thing is they can still apply for new initiative requests,” Welsh said.
Welsh said a new initiative request is what organizations submit for extra money in addition to their budgets. Organizations without a budget submit a new initiative request as financial needs occur.
While being on the e-board is Welsh’s main job, he also has other responsibilities.
“I also operate as the treasurer for our organization,” Welsh said. “So all the payments we make, they go through me to make sure we’re all caught up with everything.”
When SGA hosts an event, like Dear World last semester, Welsh said he must submit a new initiative request, like any other organization, and present it to the senate.
“As far as events we put on, I couldn’t just sign off on it; it has to go to senate and everyone,” Welsh said.
Originally from urban Freeport, Welsh resides in rural Sarver. Welsh cites affordability, the campus and town size as pros to Slippery Rock, but him coming here was the next logical progression.
“Just kind of heard about it; I had a lot of teachers in high school [who] went here,” Welsh said.
Welsh prides himself on his heavy campus involvement.
“I didn’t even really get into SGA until the end of my sophomore year,” Welsh said. “I was heavily involved with organizations prior to that, and I was just learning so many different ways to keep myself organized, keep my dates managed and keep my meetings efficient.”
Welsh is an ambassador for the Green and White society.
“Green and White Society really focuses on alumni relations and kind of creating a positive atmosphere on campus itself,” Welsh said.
As a political science major, Welsh is also working toward getting the political science honor society recognized by SGA.
“I’m kind of their inside guy, by that point, I’m trying to help them, guide them along, streamline that process to make it as efficient and easy for them as I can,” Welsh said.
Contrarily, as a political science major, Welsh does not see himself in a government job in the near future.
“I really feel like I could’ve majored in a lot of different things, and been very happy going through that program, but I’m definitely glad I majored in political science,” Welsh said.
In his last semester, Welsh said he has a job waiting for him upon graduation.
“I got a job offer from an organization called Teach for America where they place recent college graduates into low income inner-city or highly rural environments, and you work in their public school system, working with students with high needs,” Welsh said.
Still, with much to do before graduating, Welsh said his biggest accomplishment would be being elected as vice president of financial affairs, because it’s a campus-wide vote.
“I definitely feel like I’m trying to build myself up with every experience that I’ve gained throughout my past three and a half years at Slippery Rock,” Welsh said. “I tried to turn into a sponge. As far as what people might say, I would just hope they said I was a hard worker, man of my word, did what I said I was going to do.”
Welsh credits his experiences at Slippery Rock as to why he got his recent job offer. Additionally, Welsh said he will pursue graduate school within the next five years. For now, Welsh is cruising to the finish line of the college phase in his life.
“Live everyday like it’s your last, do it all, no easy day, just keep growing,” Welsh said.
