Every spring semester, Student Government members decide the budget plans for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in July. For the 2021-2022 school year, Student Government received a $9.6 million dollar budget, which is dispersed among different departments such as the Program Board and the Office of Greek Life.

With the upcoming SG elections, students will elect officials this spring whose decisions will affect how much money will go into student initiatives and activities.

How is FAU’s SG budget dispersed?

A committee that consists of the vice president, the chief financial officer, the campus treasurer, and senators decide the annual budget plan. SG’s budget comes from the activity and service fee, which comes from tuition and student fees and is put into an account to fund to benefit the student body.

According to Chief Financial Officer Pierce Kennamer, the presentations each department gives based on their funding needs heading into the next school year influence the committee’s decision on the funding for each department.

“We’ll go account by account and we’ll look at their spending from previous quarters and semesters. And from there, we’ll see how well they are spending their money,” Kennamer said.

Committee members make a decision on each student organization’s budget by gauging different aspects of their respective presentations, including their rationale for asking for more money if they chose to do so.

Florida’s minimum wage increased to $10 this past January, meaning groups that use their budget to pay student employees now have to account for using more of their budget to do so.

“A lot of budget requests have increased because our state raised [its] minimum wage, so a lot of our wages have gone up for that reason,” said Kennamer.

Since SG operates on a fiscal system, where funds are collected and dispersed, it allows an opportunity for SG to reimburse money to other programs. One way is derived from the student employees.

If a student does not use all of their hours, leftover money is eventually used for other initiatives. According to Boca Campus Treasurer Kirk Meyers, the remaining unused money from a semester can go up to an estimated $80,000 on average.

What to Expect in the Near Future

Almost two years after the COVID-19 pandemic uprooted students’ college lives, many groups are operating closer to normal.

“We have a lot of different departments experiencing more engagement and having more demand for money, but we don’t necessarily have more money to be giving out,” said Meyers.

Meyers said SG plans to place more strict requirements on departments who would like to ask for more money in their next budget.

SG expects that the activity and service fee will increase within the next couple of years with Florida’s minimum wage laws updating, where there is an increase each year on Sept. 30 until the minimum wage reaches $15 an hour by 2026.

“Hopefully we can acquire more revenue and then we can give more to departments on campus and pay for jobs,” said Meyers.

Melanie Gomez is a contributing writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories email her at [email protected].