This semester, the Senate passed a resolution that reduced the maximum amount that each club is able to request. The funding cap was decreased from $2500 to $1500 for the semester. The Senate, the legislative branch of the Student Government Association (SGA), is responsible for allocating all University funds to each club and organization.
Alison Williams serves as the senior class president and the finance committee chair for the senate, acting as the liaison between the SGA treasurer and student organizations. She explained that the funding cap was lowered due to an unprecedented amount of funding requests from the fall semester.
“Last semester, so many more organizations than expected requesting money, so we wanted to make sure that there was still some funding available for organizations this spring,” she said.
She saw that the rapid growth of clubs like Samford Outdoor Adventure Club (SOAC) has encouraged others to grow, leading to a general increase in clubs and organizations and the funding they request.
“That club has been such a success the past several years and it’s really, I guess inspired other people to start clubs,” Williams said. “I think the fact that we’ve added more club sports has played a big factor.”
Williams has not seen much pushback from clubs regarding the lowered funding cap, because most of them were already not requesting the maximum.
Some clubs, however, have felt the decrease significantly. Molly Snow serves as the president of Film Club, which exists to gather to watch and discuss films together.
“We like to try and build a community just around people that love film or want to watch film and then we’re able to talk about it”
To watch these films, however, the club must purchase rights to each one, which can cost $200-500 per film. Because of the decreased funding, they have had to cancel two of the events they had planned for the semester.
“The only reason we meet is to watch these films. Without a film, we’re really struggling to figure out what to do,” Snow said.
Snow also wishes that the communication regarding the funding cut was clearer, since she had already created her budget and events calendar before realizing this.
“I didn’t find out until I set a meeting with them (SGA), with my already-made budget,” she said. “I just think that communication could be better, like if they had told us to start like the first week of class, […] that would have saved us a lot of time.”
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