Senate approves budget

by Julie Loven

Student senate approved an additional $4,000 for KSTM radio station when Student Senate passed the budget for the 2002-2003 school year Sept. 25 by a vote of 28 yes, 3 no and 3 abstained.

But following an oversight in the budget allocation, Student Body President Jake Abel vetoed the budget.

In a letter to the editor, Abel notes a discrepancy with the intramural budget that led him to veto the previously approved Senate budget, an issue that he hoped to resolve at last night’s Student Senate meeting.

This year, the budget took four weeks to approve.

“We had a few sticking points in the budget,” said sophomore Michael Schrodt, student body treasurer. “First, we had unclear numbers of the budget and second we had a debate of how much money to allocate KSTM.”

“The senate proceedings were thorough and orderly,” said junior Sara Neppl, KSTM station manager. “If they seemed slow it was only so that all budget concerns could be considered and become as resolved as possible.”

Initially the cabinet allotted KSTM $6,000. It was amended to cut $1,000 from both Campus Activities Board’s and Religious Life Council’s budgets, along with $2,000 from the operating budget, to give KSTM a total of $10,000.

“I appreciate the money that was granted to us by student senate,” said Neppl. “We still took a budget cut but now we have resources for improvements.”

RLC and CAB both had the highest increase in dollar amounts from last year and RLC had the highest percentage increase from last year.

Sophomore CAB President Andrew Merrill is not too worried about the $1,000 loss from CAB’s budget.

“If the students feel that’s what needs to happen then I guess that’s what needs to happen,” he said. “I’m just asking for money so I can get programs running.”

Junior Julie Jackson, student chaplain of fellowship, is also not too worried about the budget.

“All campus groups are important,” she said. “However, any funding [RLC] gets benefits a lot of people. We try to reach out to students on campus, to campus as a whole and to the community at large.”

RLC is also one of the largest organizations on campus.

“RLC is an umbrella name which at least 17 groups are under,” said Jackson. “We do such a wide variety of things.”

Besides the larger organizations getting their funds, students are glad that the smaller clubs have their money.

“I’m very glad the budget is approved because the small groups like the Geology club, College Democrats and Tri-Beta need their money,” said Schrodt.

The process of determining the budget is a long, drawn-out procedure. The group must initially present a projected budget to the cabinet which consists of the student body president, student body vice president, presidents of both CAB and RLC, student body manager, student body treasurer and the four class presidents.

The cabinet then develops an initial budget based on the presentation, what the campus wants to achieve and how much the groups have gotten in the past. Increases and/or decreases in the past also play a factor.

This is a starting point that the cabinet presents to the student senate to either accept or ask for motions to amend.

“All organizations have the opportunity to come debate whether they need more money,” said Schrodt.

With the budget soon to be approved, the small groups on campus can received their allotted funds.

“The lined items on the budget are allowed to spend their money before it is allocated,” said Schrodt. “The small groups, however, get their money from the operating budget and cannot receive their money until the line items are approved by the student senate.”

According to student body president Jake Abel, the main goal of the budget is student-oriented.

Abel said to the student senate on Sept. 25, “The proposed budget is how the cabinet feels we can most effectively spend each students’ dollar.”