Letter to the editor by Max McDonough
As undergrads at the University of Maine we pay a student activity fee as a part of our bill each semester. The University of Maine Student Government (UMSG) gets this fee as a very consistent budget every year guaranteed.
This budget is then dispersed to student organizations, club sports, UMSG events and other expenses.
Typically students get some insight into this process if they run a club and request funding through student government. They fill out a form requesting funding and attend a meeting with UMSG’s Executive Budgetary Committee where they talk about the club and why they’re requesting funding.
Often funding requests end up not being fully funded for numerous reasons, sometimes this is because requests are for things that UMSG will not fund for any group. Sometimes requests are just for too much money for a small group of students. But in many cases it feels like funding requests are not funded due to UMSG feeling like it’s just too much money.
I call on UMSG to be bold with their budgeting decisions, fulfill more funding requests! Disbursing funding is the most impactful tool our student government has so let’s use it.
Unlike many other universities our student government’s key responsibility isn’t student advocacy, it is funding student led groups on campus. Sometimes it feels like that gets misremembered.
I believe we shouldn’t be seeing scenarios where tens of thousands are rolled over to another semester, aside from maybe a worldwide pandemic. Because that funding was paid by students who enrolled and paid a student activity fee that semester, it’s only fair to expect to see our money benefit us in the current semester.
We all want to be financially responsible with money, especially when we are making spending decisions with a budget that isn’t our own personal funds. But we can be too fiscally responsible as well, students pay into this account and expect to see our money disbursed in a timely manner. This money is not intended to be held like a savings account. It is our money and should be spent on activities for current students.
It’s true we don’t want to run out of money before the semester is over, but holding on to this money like we’re saving it for a rainy day is not the way these discretionary funds should be spent. To reiterate, in the near future I hope to see that more funding requests are fulfilled to a greater extent. It’s our student activity fee, let’s put it to work.
