The Shippensburg University Student Government Association (SGA) approved proposed changes to the budget and finance committee standing rules Thursday during a Zoom meeting.

The budget and finance committee members said the revisions were made with the intent to be more flexible and applicable for future years. 

The revisions were spearheaded by SGA Class of 2023 Senator Chase Slenker, SU Student Services, Inc. (SUSSI) Executive Director Adria Long, SGA Vice President of Finance Brenda Aristy and SGA Vice President of Students Groups Riley Brown.

According to an SGA email to the campus community, officials said they revised the budget and finance committee standing rules, along with the student groups handbook to better serve the students in a few key ways:

-Expand funding and services to more students and student groups, including the Greek Life community

-Increase operational efficiency within SGA and within club sports

-Provide greater freedom for student groups to responsibly and efficiently use activity fees

-Create only one classification of groups (SGA Recognized) instead of the former two (SGA Recognized & Campus Recognized)

-Make regulations, policies and procedures easier to understand and more accessible

-Transition the budgeting process to a streamlined online system

Through the changes to the documents, there is no longer a distinction between “campus-recognized” and SGA-recognized groups. Previously, campus-recognized groups could receive some funding, reserve spaces on campus, but did not receive an operating budget. SGA-recognized groups had the same perks but also received the operating budget. 

Now there are only SGA-recognized groups, according to SGA documents.

All groups are eligible for operating budgets excluding those that fall under one of four categories: Individual Greek life group, groups with less than 15 members, partisan political campaigning groups and those that complete the work of a university office as a primary function.

Campus groups and organizations involved in partisan political endorsement or campaigning are not eligible for any SGA funding if that purpose is defined in their constitution. 

Individual Greek fraternities and sororities are not eligible for funding, however the three Greek councils, Collegiate Panhellenic Council (NPC), National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), and the Interfraternity Council (IFC) are eligible to request an operating budget, additional allocation and capital expenditures.

In the standing rules document, these funds must be used to benefit the student body as a whole, not individual member organizations. External events like anti-hazing week, which is open to the entire student body and are not solely for Greek life members.Section C-7 covers the new guidelines for Greek Council funding, which the SGA officials said is, “a great step in the right direction for supporting one of our campus’ largest communities.” 

The SGA-recognized student groups flowchart allows student groups to visually figure out what kind of funding they could receive.

According to the standing rules, groups that are SGA recognized by Nov. 1 can request budgets for the following year.

SGA officials urged all group leaders, advisers and officers to read over the new rules, “as it impacts the fundamental operation, classification and eligibility of all groups.

For questions regarding the student group budget process, contact sgavpfinance@sip.edu.

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