The Traveler

Issue date: 10/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Larry Ash Tyler Bjornson, a junior broadcast journalism major from Little Rock, works the sound board at KXUA, a Registered Student Organization.

Members of Registered Student Organizations on campus will soon know much funding they will receive from the Associated Student Government.

"A lot of students don't know where their student fees for ASG go," ASG Treasurer Ben Hale said. "At 69 cents per credit hour for ASG, the sum comes out to roughly $300,000."

Of that, 80 percent contributes to RSO appropriations.

This round, the Appropriations Committee has almost $100,000 to appropriate to as many RSOs as the committee sees fit. Organizations may request level one funding (less than $1,000), level two funding ($1,000 to $5,000) or level three funding ($5,000 or more). There is no set limit on what can be requested, but RSOs must be able to substantiate any request.

Requests for more than $1,000 require an RSO to attend an interview with the Appropriations Committee. The interviews are given on a first come, first served basis.

"It's a chance for us to get a better idea of their budget and to make sure they have planned their events and not just thrown together a budget," Hale said.

The appropriations made by the committee also are specific to an event, so the funds only can be used for the events for which they are requested.

"After each interview, we like to look at each budget individually," Hale said. "We'll make initial cuts then, and then at the end we go back through all the budgets collectively and make final cuts, then appropriate funds."

RSOs must attend one of five ASG informational sessions in order to acquire funding.

These meetings will be Wednesday, Oct. 22, through Thursday, Oct. 30, and times and locations are available on the ASG Web site and in the ASG office.

Detailed RSO budgets are due to the ASG office by noon Tuesday, Nov. 4, in Microsoft Excel format. At that point, the budgets will be sorted by the amount requested and interviews will be arranged.

The ASG's funding of RSOs occurs three times a year: the first round - which funds the spring semester - is in November, the second round is in February and the last in April. Hale said the April funding round generally sees the most requests, as groups have had an entire year to orient themselves to campus and to the funding process.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools