The Undergraduate Student Association at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry described how its budget of $182,441 would be distributed among student organizations for the 2010-11 school year at Wednesday’s meeting.

The budget for the coming year increased in funds by 70 percent, has a new financial plan and is now overseen by an independent finance board.

At the meeting, President Ben Schott explained many organizations will have to request funding through co-sponsorship, a part of the budget meant to fund non-traditional events such as large venue events that many students, as well as individual student conferences. The Association also voted to change some of its bylaws, and Schott spoke about the direction he hopes to see the Association take in the future when he is no longer president.

The financial board met with student organizations during the past three weeks to determine amounts each group was spending and how significant their individual presences are on campus. Organizations can appeal the draft budget if they don’t agree with how the funds were allocated.

Co-sponsorship is a way for the Association to fund events that were not included in the budget, which focuses on meeting the operational costs of organizations before funding large events or specialized requests, Schott said. A little more than a quarter of the total budget is allocated to co-sponsorship.

“The idea was to make the yearly budget pay for the operating costs, traditional events and organizational support,” Schott said. “Everything else is through co-sponsorship.”

The Association will meet with student organizations to explain the process of requesting co-sponsorship funding and what types of events qualify for funding.

Traditional ESF events including the fall barbecue, Winter Weekend and December Soiree received an increase in funding, with the Earth Week celebration receiving a four-fold increase from $5,500 to $20,000. Overall, funding for traditional events rose from $82,000 last year to $112,300 this year.

Along with the budget changes, the Association introduced a bill to alter its bylaws. Election procedures were changed to include a write-in option in the elections, an element that was supposed to have been included in the voting process before.

“Our former elections were technically against the bylaws, but no one brought it to our attention,” said Ben Bishop, director of membership for the Association.

The bylaws were rewritten to ensure the Association’s documents are clear and comprehensive, Bishop said. To make the documents more accessible, a bill was approved that calls for the establishment of a task force to assess the feasibility of creating a database of all Association internal documents.

“What was there hasn’t changed,” Schott said. “It’s just been clarified.”

The Association also voted to create a new Campaign Ethics Committee to oversee the campaigning process. As part of the campaign reform, the bylaws prohibit candidates from using the Association’s resources or spending more than $100 on their campaign. The reform mandates that candidates disclose their expenditures at the committee’s request.

Several members questioned the severity of the new campaign rules and were curious as to why the Association deemed it necessary to implement them.

Bishop and Schott said the rules were put in place with a long-term mindset and are meant to prevent future problems.

In addition to the budget and bylaw reforms, Schott stressed the amount of work the Association has done in the past and how much more work it has to do to become established as powerful, legitimate leadership on campus.

Schott outlined three main goals he would like to see the Association accomplish next year. First, is a consolidated version of the five different documents that dictate how the Association should allocate funds, which will be available to all student organizations. Second, is a stronger presence of the Association on campus, and lastly, is an all-encompassing, campus-wide centennial celebration for ESF’s 100th year. 

“For all the milestones we’ve passed, the (Association) isn’t what it ought to be,” Schott said. “We’re really coming from something we need to change.”

Published on April 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm