On Friday, Sept. 6, The Associated Student Government interim President Raquel Smith and the rest of the body approved a tentative budget proposed by interim Vice President Hayden McBride.
The proposed budget would cover the expenses for ASG, money that could be allocated towards clubs, as well as possible stipends and scholarships for students later in the year.
Around $15,000 would be given as the total budget for the 2024-25 school year for ASG to accommodate hosting activities and travel costs for conferences later in the year to advocate for the student body. Another $39,750 would be going towards clubs and activities on campus for Fall 2024 as well as an expected $30,000 extra from the sustainability budget that was approved by the previous ASG.
“The only thing that’s a bit different from previous years is we increased the club grants by $5,000,” said McBride. “So that we can put more money into supporting our clubs and encourage them to do different activities related to their topic.”
ASG previously distributed around $7,000 to the Astronomy Club, Biology Club, and Computer Science Club last semester to help alleviate finances and pay for field trips.
With roughly $10,000 being spent on grants towards clubs last year and an additional $5,000 in the distribution of scholarships, the student body considered lowering the budget to make up for previous overspending during the spring semester.
“We had a problem last year with previous expenses with the previous ASG that we had to account for in our budget,” McBride said. “It seems like our budget is still suffering the consequences from that, so it’s a little bit lower than it normally is.”
This comes after new guidelines for the City College budget have restricted the way money would be distributed on campus, which went into effect late last semester.
Once the new ASG Board is set, a new budget will be drafted and approved as soon as possible to plan for upcoming events, until then, the newly approved budget will remain tentative.
ASG also considered when and where to schedule training for the upcoming board members. The date and time for training would be at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 after the regular 9 to 11:00 a.m. meeting. However, it is subject to change depending on the schedules of the accepted applicants.
They are looking to have a full board by Sept. 20 or 27.
Bearing the tentative budget in mind, ASG highlighted the importance of spreading information on voting and providing resources to students for voter registration on Constitution Day Tuesday, Sept. 17.
“It is an election year so it could be very important to encourage students to get out and register to vote so we’re going to be doing some events on campus,” Smith said.
The board’s next meeting will be held Friday, Sept. 13.
