As the Student Government Association (SGA) has finalized their annual budget for the 2017-2018 year, WMLU along with Lancer Productions (LP), Student Educators for Active Leadership (SEAL), and Mortar Board all received budget cuts as tier one organizations.
According to Dustyn Hall, treasurer of the SGA, out of all the other organizations listed, WMLU received the largest budget cut.
“In the second to last budget session we did come out over budget,” said Hall. “We (the SFC) feel that it’s only fair that we go back through the tier ones who receive the most money and that we take and slash from their budgets first before we visit tiers two through five since tier one received 76 percent of our budget,” said Hall.
The budget was projected to be $14,000-$16,000 over budget. The finalized budget was approved in the April 11 SGA meeting totaling $703,325.17, according to Hall.
WMLU originally asked for $60,000 for band compensation and $6,000 for agent fees, totaling $66,000, according to Hall.
After the first day of budget sessions, WMLU received a cut of $33,000, leaving half of their original budget for the upcoming year, according to Hall.
According to Hall, on the second day of budgeting sessions, a motion was made and passed to deplete the desired budget for WMLU.
“It definitely hurt, sort of more of a confusion as to why the SGA cut it, because I did anticipate a little honestly because budgets fluctuate every year but it really surprised the station,” said Gretchen Gross, publicity chair and Bandfest chair of WMLU.
“We felt like there has been a real disconnect between WMLU and SGA and even involving Lancer Productions, that’s how I feel, it was kind of the common theme amongst the board,” added Hall.
The SFC holds the right to make desired cuts in order to remain under budget without a representative present but must notify the organization within 24 hours via email, according to Hall.
Stated in the email, organizations that wanted to revisit their budgets were informed to attend the then-upcoming SGA meeting on April 4 to discuss it with the entire body.
“We (SGA) had about six or seven organizations there,” said Hall.
WMLU was included in those six or seven organizations, represented by Gross.
“I went and I explained it and explained exactly what cutting $60,000 from our band compensation meant because it meant that we couldn’t have Bandfest, we knew that for students that would be heavily felt,” said Gross.
Gross along with the president of LP, Rachel Hirsch, attended the meeting to ensure the SGA there was no feud between the two organizations.
“There is no conflict (between LP and WMLU), there might have been 10 years ago when Bandfest was probably getting bigger and seen across campus more but this last year and even this year I worked extremely hard to make sure that we didn’t keep the same genres as LP,” said Gross.
During the April 4 SGA meeting, a motion was made and passed to add $33,000 back into WMLU’s budget, still leaving WMLU at half of their desired budget, according to Hall.
The budgeting process for the Student Finance Committee (SFC) is over the course of two to three days, depending on the year. The budget is determined by Hall along with the two SGA advisors-Dr. Tim Pierson, vice president of student affairs, and Cheryl Steele, dean of student engagement and fiscal technician with a number in mind, according to Hall.
“Overall, we came out under budget five or 10 thousand dollars under budget … We as a committee would really like to thank student population and student organization leadership we know that this has been a tough year financially but we feel that our community has really stuck together,” said Hall.
“We (WMLU) are hoping that next year if the event (Bandfest) does go well the SGA will see to allocate us more in the year after that,” said Gross.
WMLU was allotted $66,000for 2016-17's band compensation and agent fees; for 2017-18, their budget was cut in half.
