The Student Government Association has begun the process of doling out $18.9 million, accumulated from the Activity and Service Fee, for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
Yesterday, Dec. 12, marked the first day of the scheduled meetings for the ASF Budget Committee. The committee met from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will do the same today, Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Altogether, registered student organizations, agencies/departments and SGA requested a total of $18,530,982, a 9 percent increase from what was requested for the current fiscal year. RSOs requested $414,362, a 45.2 percent increase from what was requested for the current fiscal year, the agencies/departments requested $16,666,595, a 9.9 percent increase from what was requested for the current fiscal year and SGA requested $1,450,025, a 6.7 percent decrease from what was requested for the current fiscal year.
The committee heard presentations from the Office of Student Involvement, Campus Activities Board, Late Knights, Volunteer UCF and nine RSOs. The committee also reviewed the request of an organization that did not schedule a presentation appointment.
Office of Student Involvement
OSI – which hosts Knight-Thon, Pegasus Palooza and Eternal Knights – was first to present their request. OSI requested $1,631,717, a 13.4 percent increase from what it was budgeted during the current fiscal year. For Knight-Thon, OSI is requested $27,650, a 29.8 percent increase from what it was budgeted during the current fiscal year.
According to LaToya Jackson, the event management coordinator for Knight-Thon, the increase in the amount requested is due to the increased participation in Knight-Thon over the years.
Knight-Thon at UCF has raised more than $450,000 since 1997.
Out of OSI's total requested amount, $52,500 was requested for graduate assistant tuition waivers, seven at $7,500 each.
Speaker of the Senate Wes Jones made a motion to eliminate the $52,500 for GA tuition waivers.
Funding and Allocations for Organizations Committee Chair Kevin Gay, a graduate student, spoke in favor of the tuition waivers and said, in a business sense, the waivers are an "industry standard."
Jones' motion failed with a vote count of 2-10.
The committee approved eight out of OSI's 11 specific requests. Three of them are postponed because the committee decided it needed additional information before making any decisions.
Campus Activities Board
CAB is requesting $619,225, a 9.3 percent increase from what it was budgeted during the current fiscal year.
Student Director of CAB Joel Joseph said CAB hopes to bring in major comedic acts such as Aziz Ansari, Katt Williams and Chelsea Handler in the future.
Conference Registration and Travel Committee Chair David Moskovitz expressed concern with how much less funding was requested for fine arts versus comedy and concerts.
"We're here at a university to learn," Moskovitz said. "I feel like fine arts would advance our learning way more than any of the other things that they proposed we fund them for."
The amount requested for comedy was amended from $199,900 to $175,000, and the $40,300 requested for special events was amended to $33,800 bringing CAB's approved budget amount to $587,825.
Late Knights
Late Knights, a program that hosts alcohol-alternative events one a month, requested $156,765, an 18.1 percent increase from what it was budgeted during the current fiscal year.
According to Late Knights Student Director Kristen Martell, each event costs about $17,948, or about $8.97 per attendee.
Martell said the reason for $24,080 increase is because Late Knights would like to increase the number of outdoor events, provide more activities to decrease lines, host an event in arena for Pegasus Palooza and promote Late Knights at Opening Knight.
After reviewing Late Knights' reversion history and not having any major concerns, Late Knights' request was approved.
Volunteer UCF
Volunteer UCF requested $79,213, a 22 percent increase from what it was budgeted during the current fiscal year.
SGA Vice President Adam Brock made a motion to amend the $3,600 budgeted for social issue events to $4,500, which was approved. The amendment brought the total for VUCF to $80,113, which was approved.
Registered Student Organizations
The committee reviewed the funding requests of 10 RSOs. The African-American Student Union, American Society of Civil Engineers, Black Female Development Circle, Catholic Campus Ministry, Cypress Dome Society, Equal at UCF, Society of Automotive Engineers and Society of Women Engineers all gave presentations on their requests for funding. The College Republicans at UCF also gave a presentation even though they were not scheduled to do so. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers' request was also reviewed. The Doctoral Students in Clinical Psychology and Swing Knights did not show up for their presentation appointments.
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