Eleven days after the allocations process was temporarily suspended because of a budgeting error, Temple Student Government Allocations Chair Eric Stephenson announced last Friday in an e-mail to student organizations
that allocations applications are once again being accepted.
Stephenson declined to reveal the exact amount remaining in TSG’s $170,000-yearly budget, but he said there are enough funds left to allocate student organizations for now. Stephenson said the Office of Student Activities informed him March 16 that anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 remained in TSG’s budget.
TSG allocated about $124,000 during the fall semester, but an invoice from the Office of Student Activities and the Finance and Administration department revealed that only about $93,000 of the allocated total was used by student
organizations.
The allocations committee allocated about $42,000 for the spring semester before Stephenson was informed that TSG only had about $4,000 left in its budget. Stephenson said he assumed that the initial fall receipt invoice, which was compiled from General Accounting’s cost center, was the official report. The unofficial fall receipt total wound up being about $106,000, Stephenson said.
TSG allocated $20,000 during an allocations
committee meeting last Wednesday, Stephenson said.
He also said student organizations that already held events this semester using TSG allocations have until Friday to turn in their receipts. If those organizations don’t turn in their receipts, the remaining money will go to other organizations.The allocations committee has “overlooked
the process of students handing in their receipts efficiently” and is attempting to create a “checks and balances system” to ensure that organizations turn in their receipts, Stephenson said.
But he also said it is ultimately the responsibility of student organizations to turn in the receipts for their programs.
“If student organizations aren’t turning in their receipts, they’re hurting themselves,” Stephenson said. “We’re going to assume that they are going to use the money we allocate to them. . . . If they’re not handing in their receipts, then our assumption that they’re going to use [what is allocated to them] is false and other organizations that can use that money aren’t able to because we’ve already allocated it. So they’re not only hurting themselves, but they’re hurting other organizations.”
The next allocations committee meeting will be held Wednesday in Walk Auditorium in Ritter Hall.
Tyson McCloud can be reached at tyson@temple.edu.
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