Members of the Union Executive Board devoted the past two weeks to completing the first major part of budgeting and appeals for the 2007-08 fiscal year. The original budgets for all clubs were released on Tuesday, January 24, so as to allow officers additional time to review the budgets and prepare for the appeals that occurred this past Saturday.
The process allows club officers to appeal decisions made by the E-Board by enabling the clubs to present and clarify the budget requests they initially made.
The E-Board heard approximately 20 appeals this weekend from different RPI clubs. These appeals were headed by Erik Swanson, vice-chair of the Executive Board.
“Overall, the appeals process went very well,” President of the Union James Fisher said. “The clubs got what they asked for and more, but without the E-Board being irresponsible about it.”
The groups that appealed varied from the water polo and rugby clubs, the business investment club, WRPI and RPI Ambulance.
About seven of the groups that appealed their budgets did so because of calculation errors in the original plans, and the budgets were simply a matter of correction.
The total subsidy after the original budgeting weekend came to $519,283.38 across Rensselaer’s organizations, according to Fisher. The total subsidy after the appeals were heard and the budget corrected came out in the range of $10,000 to $15,000 greater than that initial amount.
Rick Hartt, Director of the Union, also felt the appeals went very well this past Saturday. “One of the things the E-Board tried to do is take a step back from how decisions were made and keep an open mind in this process.” He continued, “They set aside where they were at beforehand and considered the new information they were provided with. They based their decisions on the presentations made.”
The end of the appeals process is not the end of budgeting, although it is the last major portion that the student body generally participates in. The budgets for varsity sports and the Union’s operations such as the bookstore—as well as administrative budgets—still have to be taken into account. The E-Board therefore will continue the budgeting process over the next few weeks until all this funding been finalized.
Later this semester, the Student Senate will take into consideration the budget developed by the Executive Board as it determines the Student Activity Fee for FY07-08.
