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UPDATE: This story was updated at 12:48 a.m. on November 18, 2024.

Almost a week after Syracuse University’s Student Association held an over two-hour executive session to vote on over 130 advanced allocation requests, it is still finalizing approvals amid budget constraints.

As of Sunday, SA has tentatively approved over $230,000 in semester allocations from 37 different registered student organizations and denied seven, according to its Nov. 11 meeting minutes. Its Finance Board will consider appeals from the organizations whose requests were denied during its initial review, SA President German Nolivos wrote in a Sunday statement to The Daily Orange.

“This is a common situation, just not for us – it’s just one we’re adapting to as efficiently as we can,” Nolivos wrote.

The largest approvals included around $25,000 for Cuse Baja and $24,000 for Citrus Racing, which are both engineering organizations that plan to build vehicles for competition, according to the meeting minutes. The largest denial was an over-$27,000 request for the National Pan-Hellenic Council’s Greek Unity Fest.

A significant portion of allocations went to performances on campus, including over $18,000 for Pride Union’s 23rd Annual Drag Show Finale, over $9,000 to the Raíces Dance Troupe Showcase, La Odisea, and over $10,000 to the Black Reign Step Team Showcase.

SA also approved over $10,000 for the 11th annual OttoTHON event, a dance marathon that raises money for Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic lessened funding requests, SA semester rollover funds have allowed the Finance Board to approve all advanced allocation requests that adhere to its fiscal codes, Nolivos said during SA’s Monday meeting. Now that the association’s budget has returned to pre-COVID levels, he said the association needed to use further scrutiny to limit overspending.

Semester allocation funds are taken from the student activities fee, a $211 charge that all SU undergraduate students pay annually.

The Finance Board refuses to apply further judgment to funding requests beyond the written guidelines to preserve the unbiased nature of the allocation process, SA Comptroller Alexis Leach said during last week’s meeting. Because of this, the board approved around $100,000 more in semester allocations than it had the budget for this year.

To address this, SA executives asked the assembly to vote on events based on criteria not outlined in the fiscal codes. RSOs were able to advocate for their funding requests during the open forum preceding the voting period, which was closed to the public and the media.

Despite discussions of temporarily suspending the traditional RSO appeals process, SA executives pivoted course and are now planning to allow appeals, as final approvals landed below the $250,000 budget.

“Due to the high volume of requests, we decided to allocate additional funds to an appeals process,” Nolivos said in his statement. “Because of this, I’m unable to share the full list at this time, as some organizations are still in process.”

SA is still in the process of finalizing approvals and conducting the appeals process.

Published on November 17, 2024 at 11:32 pm

Contact Anna: aclevitt@syr.edu