This year, the University took $1.3 million out of student tuitions and handed it to the Undergraduate Assembly for the group to compose a budget for the five branches of student government, the class boards and New Student Orientation.
Sunday evening, after 24 hours of number crunching, the UA voted to pass its budget for the 2003-2004 school year.
UA treasurer Gautam Mashettiwar prepared and presented the proposal.
"My goal overall was to make sure that each group got enough money to run their programs and be successful," the Engineering senior said.
Most of the numbers were comparable to last year's, with class boards and NSO receiving the same amount as the 2002-2003 grant and UA funding only increasing by a couple hundred dollars.
The Social Planning and Events Committee, Student Activities Committee and the Nominations and Elections Committee saw increases of $20,038, $35,022 and $2,415, respectively.
However, the budget for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education was cut almost $5,000 from last year, due to a failure to make use of its previous budgets.
"We understand their rationale," SCUE Chairwoman Ophelia Roman said, adding that she hoped the group would be able to accomplish most of its goals by seeking outside funding.
SAC made out best, and the UA said that it could give back to students most efficiently by giving SAC extra leeway in its funding of 180-plus groups on campus.
"We are most grateful for this meaningful increase," SAC Chairman Simon Bland said. "It is a pleasing step toward closing the sizeable gap between groups' needs and our financial ability to meet them."
Mashettiwar said that the NEC did well with its spending this past year, and its student government survey "showed that they have a lot of work to do."
SPEC President Lindsay Jaffee said that she was pleased with the outcome.
"The UA has a difficult task in having a limited budget themselves," Jaffee said. "Ultimately, we have a significant budget that we're able to plan great events with."
Only the heads of SAC and SPEC came to the UA meeting to express interest on behalf of their organization's needs.
Roman said that she did not come because she had been warned of SCUE's severe cuts.
"I just felt that the argument would be fruitless, and they would still choose to reduce our budget," Roman said.
Summing up the budget procedures, Jaffee said that "everyone has to give and take a little bit."
