SG hosts banquet as funding requirement for student groups

Student Government is trying to stretch a buck — well, 100,000 bucks — so it lasts the entire school year.

Last school year, SG’s Appropriations and Revenue Committee ran out of money to give to student

organizations in February. To avoid the same problem, student organizations looking for SG appropriations this year must attend an informational banquet Sept. 9 in the Student Center Small Ballroom.

Along with funding, the meeting is a way to inform student organizations of the resources available to them, said SG Deputy Chief of Staff Barb Jackson.

“The point of the banquet is to inform clubs and organizations that Student Government will give out money for events or things that organizations need to buy, and also to show other UK services that they don’t know about,” Jackson said.

The banquet will feature informational presentations about campus services like UK Catering or renting conference rooms, Jackson said. Organizations must register to attend the banquet before Tuesday.

“The purpose is to take an opportunity at the beginning of the year to put all student organizations on the same playing field,” SG President Tyler Montell said. “If you need funding, this is what we can pay for and this is what we can’t. While everyone is looking at their budgets, we want to say, ‘Here are your resources.’ ”

Organizations can get the most value out of SG funding by using UK’s resources for things such as catering and T-shirts, Montell said.

“One of the only negative things from last year was the fact that we ran out of money,” Montell said. “Students ask for money to buy shirts or promotional materials and we want to help get those things at the best price.”

Last year the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences organization received $1,000 from SG to help fund a trip to the MANRRS national conference in Denver. Whitney McCoy, president of MANRRS, said she doesn’t mind being required to attend the banquet in order to receive money from SG.

“I think it’s fair,” she said. “Them being the allocators, asking us to do this one thing is fair.”

Groups who do not attend the banquet, or new student groups that might form later in the year, will be taken into consideration if the need arises, according to Todd Cox, the SG adviser.

“That would be a situation where the SGA will have to look into it,” Cox said.