Cartoon by Maegan moore

Last week The Spectator published an article about the Student Government Association’s allocated budget hardly being spent. The thing about news stories is that they lack opinion and are completely objective, so that is why the aforementioned news story is getting followed up by this editorial.
Without getting into too much detail about SGA’s budget, seeing how it was laid out in last week’s issue, here is a basic breakdown of their budget to give you, the students, a better sense of knowledge of how SGA’s budget works. For this fiscal year, starting July 2008, SGA was allocated $40,000 by the Student Allocation Fee Committee and along with an $11,000 rollover from the previous year, SGA’s budget totaled around $51,000. The breakdown of that budget goes as this: $10,000 for personal services (salaries), $1,000 for travel and $40,000 for operating supplies and expenses. In laymans terms, $40,000 for everything else.
That being known, and with the budget progress report at our disposal, The Spectator looked into where the $40,000 was going. After a phone conversation with Morgan Alexander, SGA’s Comptroller, The Spectator had a better idea of where the $40,000 was intended to go.
According to Alexander, the main function of the money is to distribute to student organizations that are unable to completely fund themselves or lack the financial support from VSU. This is great. There are numerous small organizations on campus that need help, and we are glad that the SGA recognizes this. But there is a small problem. Since July 2008, there has only been one organization was allocated money: the Society of International Students (SIS). SIS was given $499, which is the most the SGA can give without taking a vote. The SGA also provided $1,000 for the International Dinner, helping with student tickets.
So according to the budget progress report, SGA has only spent $1,499 on student organizations or student activities from July 2008 to January 2009.
We understand that it takes money to run an organization; it takes money to run a newspaper. We understand the money for the salaries, we understand the money for travel (everyone deserves a reward for their work) and we understand having to pay for running an office. But what we don’t understand is why the rest of the money is not constantly getting back to the students. The money that the SGA receives is taken from student activities fees, so we feel that it should be given back to the students fully.
We would be willing to bet that there is more than one organization that could use $499, so why has only one organization collected? Is it because the organizations do not know that the money is out there? Maybe, and if that is the problem then the SGA needs to figure out a way to let it be known that there is money available.
SGA is also planning to help S.A.V.E. fund Green Week, along with the Mr. VSU pageant and the annual end of the year party. Even after all of these events, the SGA still plans to have money left over at the end of the fiscal year.
SGA has the right idea with what to do with the money, and we are not suggesting cutting their budget, but something needs to be done to get that money, on a regular basis, pumped back into the veins of VSU.
The students did not pay their student fees to watch a part of that money sit in a bank account.

This editorial was written by Lee Johnson (gljohnson@valdosta.edu) and it expresses the opinion of the entire editorial staff.