This Wednesday’s meeting of the Georgetown University Student Association may determine whether or not funds allocated to student organizations will be considerably reduced next year.

According to an e-mail sent to the leaders of student organizations by Student Activities Committee Chair Aakib Khaled (SFS ’10), SAC will be forced to reevaluate the funds that it has already allocated to groups for next year if GUSA does not approve its budget.

“If this budget is not passed, SAC’s financial capabilities will be reduced by some $52,000, or about 25 percent,” Khaled said.

The Funding Board unanimously passed the budget on Feb. 11. The board includes the chairs of the Center for Social Justice Advisory Board for Student Organizations, Club Sports, Media Board, Performing Arts Advisory Council and SAC, along with six senators from the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee and representatives from Georgetown Program Board and GUSA.

The budget was voted down last month after GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and several senators, including GUSA Senate Vice Speaker Nick Troiano (COL ’11) and Irina Varela (MSB ’11), argued that clubs should be required to spend more of their excess reserve funds before they are allocated more money in the GUSA budget.

Angert has said that spending down the reserve funds is part of his agenda as president. On March 29, Angert addressed budget surpluses and clubs’ tendencies to ask for additional funding when they had not exhausted their budget from the previous year. During this meeting, GUSA passed a resolution to increase the transparency of the Funding Board.

“What we are really looking for is some reasonable solution to this problem,” Angert said. “We want the groups to voluntarily say, `These are what are our reserves should be,” and if there are extra funds, they should take that money and put it in the student endowment, which is the only allowable interest-bearing account, and allow it to reach critical mass so we don’t need to continue to levy this tax on students every semester.”

GUSA Senator and Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) highlighted the need for the reserve funds, citing an incident in 2006 when the Georgetown Program Board paid for Fountains of Wayne to perform at a fall concert and had to use a large portion of its reserve funds after low ticket sales.

“[The clubs] have been overstating their risk, and I think we need to put more pressure on them,” said Wagner. “But we have to show them that even if we disagree with short-term things we need to be able to allocate that money.”

In his e-mail, Khaled explained the necessity of the reserve funds, saying that SAC ran out of money for the fiscal year in February and had to take $25,000 out of the reserve to cover the year.

“Without the reserve account, SAC cannot possibly allocate out money to the diverse and complicated events that our groups plan because we will not be able to cover the risk and place our groups’ futures in deep financial jeopardy,” Khaled said.

Wagner addressed the senate and stressed the importance of approving the budget this Wednesday. This will be GUSA’s last planned meeting of the year, as student clubs are not allowed to meet after the last day of class.

“There are two possibilities of what will happen. Neither is good, but one is more plausible to happen,” Wagner said.

If GUSA does not pass the budget, it is possible that the $50 student activities fee that was collected from each student this year will not be used next year. Clubs will have to rely on their other sources of funding, according to Wagner.

“The only money they will have will come from their other two sources of funding,” Wagner said. “These groups are reliant for their planning purposes on these moneys.”

It is possible, however, that Director of Student Programs Erika Cohen-Derr and Associate Director of Student Programs Bill McCoy will seize control of the funds and use the money to create its own budget – effectively overruling GUSA, according to Wagner.

Angert emphasized the importance of resolving the issue in the next week.

“Letting this drag on is to everyone’s detriment,” he said.

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