On Nov. 12, Student Association Vice President Matthew O’Donnell proposed a bill he wrote alongside Student Association Director of Finance Ryan Green.
The bill, SLE.55.17: Too Much Pizza, lays out both O’Donnell’s and Green’s desire to cut back on clubs and organizations spending money unnecessarily. This proposed bill is one of two or three more to follow, cutting spending in areas like organization apparel. An exception would be club sports, who are required to have certain apparel. What would happen in this situation, should that bill be passed, is jerseys would be non-personalized and returned to SA after graduation.
“We believe that the student association fee, which comes into the student association budget, is not helping students; it’s helping individual organizations,” O’Donnell said.
According to both O’Donnell and Green, they found multiple clubs spending leftover funds, especially at the end of a school year, on food for members of their organization.
Many clubs and organizations use this leftover money out of fear that they will lose any funds they did not use when requesting a budget for the next year. Any funds not used go back into the SA reserve. Currently, there is not a lot of funds in the reserve, causing difficulties with SA, which has been trying to give campus life jurisdiction over club sports. However, they need money to run these sports, which would have to be given by SA, according to O’Donnell.
O’Donnell explained that there are two sides to SA: an advocacy side, and a financial side. While this administration is focusing on the finances, others before focused mainly on advocacy, contributing to the severe debt SA finds themselves in. Should SA not fix this deficit, they may lose all funding, and be unable to help and provide for clubs as they currently do.
Considering that SA is in debt, some senators are very on-board with the proposed bill.
“Many clubs feel if they provide food for their members, that gives them the incentive to attend meetings,” said SA senator and rules and judiciary chair Maryjay Olalekan. “That is not the way we want our clubs to run, we want them to grow with constituents who have an interest in being a member and not there for just the goodies. This is not a bad thing, this is a step towards change that will make a difference in the future.”
However, this does not mean student organizations will be unable to cater events. The catered events will have to serve the Oswego State community, not just current club members. The main idea is to take back unused funds to help fix some of the debt SA is facing. Another way to combat this is trying to get rid of “historical funding,” where organizations are given the same budget as years prior.
“Let’s say you had three events, and we find out two weren’t successful. Normally, we’d be funding all events, including the unsuccessful ones, but we’re trying to think of a way to only fund the successful ones, and maybe also a risk one, where it’s a new event where it might be successful, it might not be,” O’Donnell said. “But in the end, the organization still has a chance.”
The bill was widely debated during the last senate meeting, with senators bringing up various points, including how they could enforce this rule and the negative effects it may have on clubs and organizations. During the next SA meeting, senators will work together to amend the bill and later vote on it. If the bill gets approved, it will take effect in the 2020-2021 academic year.
Photo by Colin Hawkins| The Oswegonian
