One of the ways the Student Government Association helps organizations across campus is by allocating money through BucFund. On Sept. 25, SGA decided which organizations to fund.
“Essentially the money is taken from the student fees that each student pays within their tuition fees,” Adam Rosenbalm, chair of the BucFund Committee, said. “So then a little bit comes out of that before it gets to our pot. Eighty-five percent of it is split on campus and 25 percent goes off campus. All of that money that had gone out today, that’s where that comes from.”
Some of the organizations that asked the SGA for money included Adoration Life, Office of Multicultural Affairs and Admissions Ambassadors.
“Organizations … go online, and there’s a BucFund application that they can fill out,” Rosenbalm said. “They can submit those applications filled out, and then they go before the BucFund Committee.”
Rosenbalm said the committee looks through the applications, and then they analyze the impact of students on campus versus if it’s an off campus event and how it comes back and impacts students on campus.
“We’re looking at the time of the event, how much fund raising they’ve done as a group and how do we feel like it’s going to impact the students,” Rosenbalm said. “From that, we give the recommendations, and that goes before the Senate. So the final say is the Senate, but the BucFund kind of whittles it down before it goes before the Senate.”
Eleven different organizations asked BucFund for allocations, and the BucFund committee recommended different totals to give based on the budget total.
“I want to say there was about $135,000,” Rosenbalm said. “I know that we had about $110,000 to $112,000 on campus, and I want to say it was between $15,000 and $20,000 off campus.”
Some organizations, such as the office of Multicultural Affairs and the Hispanic American Committee Alliance received the exact amount of money they requested. Other organizations, such as Admission Ambassadors and Adoration Life received less than what they asked for.
“BucFund is for event funding,” Rosenbalm said. “It’s on a first come, first serve basis. It’s just based on the organizations that come forward. We treat each application when it comes in as if there’s nothing after or before it.”
At the end of the meeting, the BucFund was left with $72,265.60 on campus and $11,910.40 off campus.
“I was pleased with today’s meeting,” Rosenbalm said. “You saw a lot of discussion, which is really important when we’re giving out as much money as we are.”
