SFC grants a portion of group overages

The Student Fee Committee completed its hearings for budget overage requests in late October and recently completed its hearings of rollover requests.

A budget overage is the result of a student group spending more than its allocated amount for the fiscal year and an overage is money made by a student group in addition to its allocated funds. Student groups go before the SFC every fall to ask to be forgiven for overages and to be allowed to keep rollovers.

Twenty-three student groups had budget overages from the 2008–09 school year totaling $862,850, but the SFC was only asked by the groups to forgive a total of $120,274.

The committee chose to forgive only eight groups a portion of their requested overages, totaling $36,227.
“Barring unforeseen events—natural disasters—we’ve been denying requests,” said SFC member William Zimmers during the Students for Unity hearing, in which the student group requested that its $317 overage be forgiven.

The SFU was denied its overage request by the SFC.

United Indian Students in Higher Education reported a rollover from the last fiscal year of $702. The request was granted to keep the money, which was made from the group’s annual salmon bake and from selling concessions at its annual powwow.

The additional money will be used by UISHE to provide free food at an educational event promoting Native American cultural awareness in the coming year, according to the group’s coordinator.

“We want to give money to groups to build community, not just within their own cohort, but in the community in general,” said SFC Chair Johnnie Ozimkowski. “Free food at an event definitely helps bring in the community.”

The group was granted the rollover money pending documentation of the estimated cost of food for the event.
Almost all groups granted their rollover request amounts were asked to provide rough documentation of the intended use of the money.

The Queer Resource Center reported a budget rollover of $4,399 from the previous year, which was also granted after the SFC determined how the money will be spent.

The money was made by the QRC during events the group held that drew much higher attendance than expected and from a late-registration payment for a conference held at Portland State the previous year, according to the group’s coordinator.

“We have to make sure the money will be spent in a way that reflects the spirit of the student fee and the mission of the individual organization,” Ozimkowski said.

The QRC’s rollover money will be put toward a diversity conference this winter, its annual Lavender Graduation and to augment its educational events during the November Transgender Awareness Month.

The SFC will receive its initial budget requests for next year from student groups and departments on Nov. 13.