Student Association’s budget meeting ran without major dispute and lasted 45 minutes Monday, a contrast to prior years when meetings have run more than an hour.

Comptroller Jeff Rickert, who presides over the Finance Board, said he was ‘amazed’ about the shortness and ease of the meeting.

‘It definitely went smoother than it has in the past, and for lack of anything better to contribute it to, I’m going to say it definitely had something to do with the financial vision,’ Rickert said.

Student organizations requested a total of $600,713.45 in funding for their fall 2011 budgets and received $237,825.57 from SA, with $119,702.43 available for appeals. There is $429,442.17 set aside for spring 2012 programming, with $50,000 extra allocated for appeals that semester. Talk about CitrusTV’s operating budget lasted longer than any other budget discussion.

Passing the financial vision for this semester was one of the early goals for SA, said SA President Neal Casey. SA successfully passed the vision Jan. 25, several weeks earlier than it did in past years. Casey said in addition to the early passage, groups benefited from this year’s financial vision being longer and more detailed.

‘In the past, groups have been very confused as to where they stand. This year expectations were clearly set, so that was able to quell some of the concerns,’ Casey said.

Rickert said this year there was better communication between the groups requesting money and the Finance Board. He said this was probably because everyone seemed to have read and understood the financial vision, which provided more specificity for groups seeking money.

‘I think our recommendations this year have been much more straightforward than they have been in the past,’ Rickert said.

The $119,702.43 designated to be allocated for appeals is more than twice the amount allocated last spring for the same purpose. Rickert said the large amount of money for appeals might have contributed to the calmness of the groups that were denied funding or did not receive as much as they had hoped.

Appeals are due Thursday and will be voted on by SA next Monday, Rickert said. He said many of the reasons for turning down requests were clerical and communication issues that can be sorted out next week.

The longest discussion at SA’s meeting was on CitrusTV’s budget.

Assemblymembers Eugene Law and David Woody said they found the lengthy description of the funding breakdown difficult to follow, causing the voting for the bill to be postponed until the end of the meeting. Rickert said the Finance Board spent four to five hours on CitrusTV’s budget, which was the most time they spent on any organization’s budget.

The assembly ultimately voted in favor of the Finance Board’s recommendation that CitrusTV receive $299,642.02 of the $490,321.02 it requested in its operating budget. The money for operating budgets does not factor into the amount granted or requested for fall 2011 programming.

This amount requested is $100,000 more than CitrusTV requested last year, in large part due to a desire to make more of the technology high-definition, Rickert said. He said the organization was granted about $40,000 more than it received last year.

Rickert said he spoke to CitrusTV’s general manager, Ben Slutzky, after the meeting. Slutzky questioned some of the choices the Finance Board made in allocating the money for CitrusTV’s budget. Rickert said CitrusTV was free to appeal for more money. Slutzky could not be reached for comment by The Daily Orange.

After many groups’ budgets were considered and passed, representatives from many of the groups present at the meeting stood and thanked the assembly and the Finance Board for granting the group money or considering its request. University Union, Syracuse University Ambulance, Pride Union and National Pan-Hellenic Council representatives were among those who received money and thanked SA.

Organizations whose requests were denied, such as the Student African American Society, also thanked SA and said they would apply for appeals, which will be allocated at next week’s meeting.

Both Rickert and Casey said they were pleased with the way the meeting went and how financial decisions have been made so far this year.

Said Casey: ‘A great financial vision like this — I think you saw tonight it’s made a huge impact.’

spcotter@syr.edu

Published on April 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm