Student organizations hoping to get one-time funding called one-shots next semester will face a new policy for distributing the money.
The old system, termed by some senators to be more of a collection of guidelines rather than an actual policy, funds referred to as one-shots were requested twice a year to be accepted or rejected by SUFAC according to their available funds. The new policy combines the two periods for large capital requests, while adding a contingency fund for smaller unforeseen funding requests by organizations throughout the year.
Dividing the funding requests into two separate sections will allow for more options for student organizations. The capital fund requests operate in a similar manner to how most of the Student Association requests currently work. According to Chief Financial Officer Nick Herro, the majority of accepted funds currently fall under this category. In addition, many of these requests are planned out years in advance. The bigger organizations on campus, such as the sports teams and the band, are typically aware of what they will need in future years to plan accordingly. Since these requests are typically planned in advance, having two request periods per year becomes, as Herro termed it, “superfluous.” While theoretically the funds will be easier to work with under one request period, Herro says that the policy is more about clarifying the existing regulations than for efficiency’s sake.
While the capital fund is only available if the request is submitted before the sixth Friday of the fall semester, the contingency fund is available year round. Created as an emergency fund for unexpected requests, the contingency fund is usable by all organizations for unexpected costs or opportunities but is more likely to be used by smaller organizations that typically don’t have capital requests. As Herro put it, the contingency fund was an attempt to “budget for the unbudgeted,” a way to make SUFAC better able to fulfill its purpose of giving different organizations the resources to perform the activities that justify their existence.
The change does not change organizations that are eligible for funding, nor does it change the way funding requests are processed. Organizations that are already unfunded by the school would not be eligible for funding. The policy should give organizations more opportunities to get the money that they need, though in Herro’s ideal world, the contingency fund would not even have to be used. Just having the ability to deal with emergency requests gives SUFAC flexibility to better serve student organizations’ needs.
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