Posted By Gettysburgian Staff on Apr 17, 2023 | 1 comment

By The Gettysburgian Editorial Board

The spring 2023 semester has brought many debates regarding the Senate as a successful governing body due to their ineffective budget allocation for this academic year. At the start of the year, Senate was allotted $92,116 and by the end of the fall semester, $77,299.89 had been allocated, allowing for the rest of the spring semester budget to total $18,576.11—leaving merely 16 percent of the budget for the second half of the year. Some of the allocations will be used for events in the spring that have already been budgeted as shown through these figures. Despite this point, there is still an evident misuse of the budget.

Student Senate has commented on the issues of budgeting this year blaming much of the impact on inflation and more clubs asking for funds than usual. As life returns to pre-COVID levels on campus, clubs have continued their initial needs for budgeting from before the pandemic. With many of the student senate members having  entered college in the abrupt pandemic state, they were likely not trained as well on how to handle an average year’s budget. While inflation is an issue that all Americans are facing and all colleges are dealing with nationwide, it is not fair to blame an entire year’s budgeting issues on the economic state of the country. It is a share of the issue, but not the entire cause. Senate should take responsibility for the lack of leadership training and understanding of a functioning campus returning from COVID-levels of organizing events. 

Apart from the already extraneous allocation of the budget across the board, much of the campus’s concerns have been surrounded by the ski club. The ski club, as already allocated in the budget in the fall semester, was allotted $8,840, nearly 10 percent of the annual budget. The College’s ski club is a student-run organization that, according to their mission statement available on their website, “hopes to introduce the winter sports of skiing and snowboarding to students of all abilities through meetings and trips to nearby mountains.” It is no secret that such winter sports are expensive meaning that a minimal number of students are able to participate. It is irresponsible to distribute such a substantial amount of money in the budget for the hobby of a select few. The ski club is just a prominent example of the Senate’s controversial allocation choices and is not wholly to blame given how many clubs compete for the budget. Despite this fact, change must start with the recognition of such misuse of the budget.

A shift is absolutely necessary if the Senate wishes to continue functioning effectively as a governing body for the student population and it needs to be fixed from the inside. As already stated, many students outside of the Senate have been educated in the COVID-era of a working campus. In order to properly govern a campus regaining speed from the lasting pandemic, there needs to be leadership training. Such training would include professionals or past senators suited to instruct a group of college students in running a budget similar to pre-COVID levels. It would be necessary that professional conduct also be taught as the tensions in Senate have only caused further issues in a functioning organization. Levels of professionalism are the bare minimum requirement in working as a representative member of campus. Members being barred from committees, impeachment and the repetitive threats thereof cause disfunction in Senate and impact the larger campus without getting us closer to a solution. Leadership training will educate and support continuing members to efficiently run an organization that impacts last beyond their years. 

The pressing issue surrounding the budget has not gone unrecognized by Senate and there have been discussions towards creating better management of the budget for the future. In a January meeting, Director of the Office of Student Activities and Greek Life (OSAGL) and Senate Faculty Advisor Jon Allen, noted that other institutions required clubs with budgets expected to be large to bring their requests forward earlier in the year. This practice might help create more efficient execution of the budget by allocating larger costs first. Senate has also begun discussion of changing their constitution including voting outside the presence of the club to request approvals. These ideas are good starts to aid the future of the College campus, but they will only benefit students if executed properly in practice.

Senate is not the only organization to blame for the budget’s expense. Clubs have relied on Senate’s generous budget allocations for a long time instead of using free resources already available to them. OSAGL has offered paint supplies, decorations, games, sound systems, a mobile phone booth, and a popcorn machine to clubs without having to go through Senate. As a result of the current depleted state of the budget, clubs that cannot be supported by OSAGL’s free resources are now forced to cut the costs of their events. The current frugal event budgeting teaches a valuable lesson in prioritizing costs rather than using a catch-all system.

In the likely event that the Senate’s budget depletes, they will then have to dip into the rollover fund. The rollover fund is built by excess remains from previous years and is currently set at $21,489.53. The fund has been previously used for Senate projects including the bikeshare and the inclusion of water fountains in first-year dorms. Aside from the Senate’s use of the fund, it has additionally been accessed by organizations aiding underprivileged students. Mosaic Minds provides textbooks for students struggling with financial issues in ordering textbooks. The Myra T. Heron Fund supports academic activities, study abroad and research aid for underrepresented students. It is increasingly likely that both of these programs will go underfunded because of the failures of Senate’s budgeting practices. Not only have students within this academic year been affected by the Senate’s lack of organization, but marginalized students entering the college years from now will be facing the repercussions of this senate’s actions on their educational success at the college.

Apart from the initial affair of poor budget organization, there is a general disconnect between the Student Senate and the campus population. There is a lack of voting on campus with only 181 votes for president and 207 votes for vice president coming in through elections on a campus with over two thousand students. In tandem with little voter representation, the Senate positions have included a select number of individuals that continue to win positions regardless of job efficiency – with some candidates even running unopposed. The low voting turnout creates issues of representation in the Senate and forms a closed-off organization that continues to turn out the same candidates and officers every year. It is necessary for any governing organization that positions change and are introduced with new perspectives privy to issues otherwise unknown to the existing members of the Senate. This does not only come with freshman senators who are new to campus, but in representations and changing positions of all years. Without a change to the Senate members, the organization remains stagnant and perpetuates the same issues. 

The solution for a change in Senate is clear: students on campus need to vote. In order for anything to change there need to be new voices in Senate. While the current members of Senate are not to be completely blamed for the issues with the budget and campus disconnect, the only way change can happen is through the introduction of new perspectives. Students should also feel encouraged to run for office and produce more candidates. Including new students in Senate will bridge the disconnect and have the organization function as a greater representation of the campus population rather than have the voice of the few speak for all students, both current and future.

These present issues with the Senate budget are not limited to this academic year. If change is not made through leadership training for climbing senators in aid of inflation and return to pre-COVID levels of activity on campus, the future of clubs and events is bleak. There is not one individual or committee to blame for the problems of budget allocation, but rather a series of compounding events that needs recognition and reformation for the future of the Student Senate and club organization on campus. 

Editor’s note: This editorial reflects the collective opinion of The Gettysburgian’s editorial board. Assistant News Editor Ella Prieto, who is involved in Student Senate, did not participate in the development of this piece nor did she sign off on it.

This article originally appeared on pages 20 and 21 of the March 2023 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine