Starting in the fall 2017, the Student Finance Committee (SFC), a subcommittee of the Student Government Association (SGA), will no longer need the final approval of the SGA to allocate funds to clubs and organizations as of Tuesday, April 18 in the SGA meeting.
According to Dustyn Hall, executive treasurer of the SGA, the bylaws passed by a unanimous vote, modifying the SFC’s allocations process.
According to Tim Pierson, the vice president for student affairs, the SFC serves to “allocate student activity fees to the Longwood University community in the best interest of the student body.”
Pierson explained that the SFC consists of no more of 15 members, all of whom are part of the SGA.
“I am actually the chair,” said Hall. “I chair all our meetings, and I am in charge of the oversight of the process in addition to the allocation of money to student clubs and organizations each year.”
The change will expedite the process of organizations receiving allocations, according to Hall.
“If you’re involved in an organization, and you’re involved in the allocations process ... I think it definitely makes it easier,” said Hall.
The current process requires appearances before the SFC and the SGA senate for one time allocations after sending in forms by the 6 p.m. Wednesday before the meeting to Hall.
In the current process, according to Hall, organizations must then go to senate before they can receive any money.
The revisions, according to Hall, will eliminate the senate-related step. The only time the senate will be asked to review a funds request is in the case of an appeal against an SFC decision, according to Hall.
“The SFC will have the final say in all one-time allocation requests, with the appeals process going to senate as a whole,” Hall explained. “If an organization doesn’t feel like their case has been heard or like there’s some sort of injustice they can appeal the whole senate and then it would become a senate vote.”
According to Pierson, changes to the bylaws happen on a fairly regularly basis to meet the needs of the student body.
“It not atypical to have changes in the bylaws periodically in order to have the process and procedures best serve the needs of the student organizations,” Pierson noted. “The committee has been reviewing the document for approximately the last month.
According to Hall, the changes were spurred by conversations on how to improve the SFC over the past few years.
“We’ve had these had these conversations, how we can improve the Student Finance Committee,” Hall said. “And even further than that, how we can improve the student body as a whole in our spending of our fees.”
Hall also commented it gave the SFC more responsibility in its role.
“You got to ask questions, you got to make those tough decisions. We’ve really been having to do that this past year with our budget," he said. "I feel like my committee has done an amazing job working through those issues."
