A bill will come up for consideration at the SGA meeting today that may change the way student organizations get funding. Currently, any non-exclusionary student organization that is recognized by WPI, and is not a member of a nationally sponsored organization, is eligible to receive a budget from SGA. Under the proposed guidelines, organizations that wish to receive budgets out of the SGA Treasury would have to be recognized by the SGA. This recognition would be characterized by organizations being given the status "Student Government Budgeted Organizations."
In order to obtain the status of being a "Student Government Budgeted Organization," an organization would have to be granted a charter by the SGA. The charter could be granted or revoked by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. The goal of granting charters is not to exclude groups from funding, but to solidify the SGA's power to enforce the rules of the budgeting and funding processes. Student organizations that fail to comply with the financial and organizational regulations would have their charters suspended, and thus use of their accounts suspended, until they comply with the regulations. The chartering process would only apply to the annual budgeting of student organizations. Special Funding Requests could still be granted to any WPI organization.
This legislation is part of a trend of actions being taken this year to encourage student organizations to become more aware of the regulations concerning their budgets. Earlier this year, all club sports were required to attend a meeting with Whit Griffith and Derek Sickman, SGA's Class II Assistant Treasurer, to review funding processes. Club sports that did not attend that meeting cannot get funding until they meet with Whit Griffith and comply with the rules set forth at the meeting. Along the same lines, all budgeted organization was expected to have their treasurer meet with SGA Treasurer Mickey Lacroix before they would be allowed to access their budgets. SGA has also begun refusing to accept Special Funding requests that do not demonstrate that an organization has tried to find both the lowest price and alternative forms of funding. The school requires cost breakdowns and invoices before it will release a check to an organization, and SGA expects the same level of consideration. Very often, organizations do not follow proper procedures, and get upset when they have trouble accessing their accounts. These rules would require organizations to be more informed, and hopefully prevent many of the mix-ups that occur.
The bill currently being considered is an amendment to the SGA Constitution. It will be considered both at tonight's Senate meeting and at next week's Senate meeting. It will have to be passed at both meetings in order for it to take effect. Because it is a Constitutional amendment, the procedures for chartering are not defined by it. If the bill passes, the Senate would next have to consider the exact procedures that organizations would have to go through. If you have questions about this legislation, please contact SGA.