Following the last lengthy budget meeting, many students voiced complaints as to what was approved for the semester.
Students complain, “I pay 50, 000 dollars to go here but I don’t ever see a cent of that money doing anything for me!”
Unaware that the $101 student activity fee that every student attending Pace pays per semester is what gets pooled into the budget for programming, students continue to complain.
“Students also pay for credits but they still have to get the grade and put the effort in,” Coordinator of Student Development and Campus Activities Caity Kirschbaum said. “Students argue but they need to know that they can go to SGA and make their voice heard. Student input is key!”
This total budget is intended for programs and events that will benefit the entire student body and bring the community together. There are several rules and regulations, as well as a system that is followed, that are meant to keep a system of checks and balances for what is passed from the budget.
“Students need to take the initiative to make their voice heard. Complaining about how their money is spent is not going to affect what it is spent on,” Vice President of Finance Sungi Clark said. “Any student is capable of coming to the BAC meetings and speaking to the representative of any organization to voice their opinion about an event.”
Every Friday there is a Budget Allocation Council (BAC) meeting that is held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.. At this meeting, representatives from organizations are able to have a Budget Management System (BMS) request reviewed that they submitted on the previous Monday. This process occurs throughout the semester and organizations can submit a BMS to be reviewed at any point, up until a deadline towards the end of the semester.
BAC meetings towards the end of the semester may last for a long period of time, and this is due to the fact that many organizations wait to the last minute to submit their BMS requests.
In determining what gets passed. there is a Student Government Constitution specifically including the budget as well as bylaws that are created by the Vice President of Finance, Sungi Clark. This constitution is available for all students to see on the Pace OrgSync website under the organization Student Government Association (SGA). If it is one’s first time logging in to OrgSync, the organization SGA will automatically be joined.
There are many actions put in place in order for the most cost effective budget usage. During the beginning of the week, following the submission of the BMS request, there is a quality check on the events and amount requested.
The bylaws for this current financial year include the color-coding of organization’s agency accounts. The bylaw sates, “In order to promote the financial stability of each individual organization, organizational agency accounts will be color coded in accordance to their balance.”
There are four different colors that correlate to the balance of each organization’s account. The red level consists of accounts that have a balance of less than $50, the blue level accounts have a balance between $50 and $999, the green level accounts have a balance between $1,000 and $2,000, and the gold level accounts have a balance exceeding $2,000. These levels are used to help with cost effectiveness of using the budget from the student activities fee. In some cases, the agency account may be able to pay for a portion of what they had requested from the budget.
“Thinking about the bigger picture of things that can make a difference long term for students and the Pace community are something that we are trying to push into effect, especially with the changes that will be occurring with the Master Plan,” Kirschbaum said. “Students and organizations need to remember that they are planning for the student body and not just for themselves.”