Student Government Association has given line-item status to ten programs and organizations on campus for the 2007-2008 school year.

At its meeting last week, SGA approved line-item status for KSTM, The Simpsonian, Zenith, Intramurals, Religious Life Council, Sequel, CAB and the college nurse, as well as granted SGA line-item status.

While other groups receive money from SGA throughout the school year, these groups need to know their budgets before the school year begins since they have expenses before classes start.

These are typically bigger organizations,” said Rich Ramos, director of student activities. “They have a need to know the budget long before fall semester for planning.”

According to sophomore SGA Senator Lisa Fiene, groups wishing to receive line-item status must go through an application process. They must show how the organization has a campus-wide impact and prove it needs money before the school year starts. The amount of student participation is also a determining factor.

“This is one of my favorite meetings,” Sophomore Class President Josie Rundlett said. “I’m not involved in some of the groups who receive line-item status, so I get to hear what they all do. It’s so informative.”

SGA reviews the requests and votes on approval. This year, every group that applied was approved.

“I thought things went very smoothly,” Rundlett said. “We did not deny anyone.”

All eight groups that received line-item status were in the same position last year. The only new group to apply for line-item status position was SGA itself.

“In the past, SGA had line-item status,” Ramos said. “Last year (SGA) did not, so we applied for line-item status again.”

One of the largest groups is CAB. Junior Mack Worthington, SGA senator and CAB president, pointed out at the meeting that the group has more than 10,000 participants and puts on roughly 200 events each year. CAB starts booking acts over the summer that will appear throughout the year.

KSTM is looking to increase its variety of programs to include more sports and news. The station is hoping to broadcast more football and basketball games. A news program would also allow students interested in news broadcasting to gain experience.

Representatives from the Intramurals program pointed out that 65 percent of students participate in more than 60 sports throughout the year. The group introduced seven new activities this year and hopes to add more next year.

The Religious Life Council has more than 200 participants each week, according to group representative junior Courtney Swanson. RLC currently has approximately 15 groups and 25 programs that run throughout the school year and during the summer for freshmen.