2019-2020 SGA budget focuses on supporting student organizations

Although the leadership has changed over the last year, the way the Student Government Association is spending its money has not.

SGA released its annual $75,000 budget for the 2019-2020 school year, allocating money similarly to how it did the academic year prior.

This year, 70 percent of the budget, equal to $53,000, was devoted to grant petitions. The other 30 percent, equal to $22,000, will be going to a few other categories that mainly concern SGA event planning.

Grant petitions enable clubs to request money for expenses related to their organization, including costs for banners and events.

“We’ve been given the resources to help them and we want to carry that out faithfully,” said SGA Treasurer Austin Lanning.

Budget courtesy of SGA Treasurer

At this point in the school year, SGA has given $18,955 to other clubs, an amount that Lanning hopes to increase.

“We want to spend all of our money, but the problem is we can’t spend this money if people don’t come to us for it,” Lanning said.

A fund of $3,000 that was originally allocated as money for an SGA team building retreat has also been absorbed into the grant petition fund, taking the original $50,000 in grant petitions to $53,000.

The $22,000 outside of grant petitions will be divided into spending for catered food, decorations and professional services, all of which are purchased for use in student outreach events.

“Our main focus has always been student feedback, so we wanted to implement a lot of different events that would incorporate more of that,” said SGA President Meghan Hickok.

One such event is SGA’s Pancakes and Problems, which is held every other month and offers students a chance to propose ways that they would like Belmont to change.

“That’s when we get to really connect firsthand with different Belmont students,” said Hickok.

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This article written Ryder Guido.