The Student Government Association (SGA) has been approved for an extra $20,000 in student activity fees, raising their yearly budget to $60,000, in an effort to get more done on campus, according to President Shaikh Amin.
Members of the SGA requested the additional funds in September from the York College Association, since the previous year they were quite conservative with their spending on clubs and facilities on campus.
SGA needs exceeded their allocated budget of $40,000 last year, but members claim that it was because not enough money was given to finance larger projects, leaving them to focus on smaller ones throughout campus.
“We are going to be very respectful about this and use this money properly,” said Amin. “If you wait a couple of months you will see the improvements.”
For the 2014 and 2015 academic year, the SGA wants to bring more awareness about the clubs on campus — a problem that many see as the primary reason for low student voter turnout and poor attendance at SGA-hosted events.
Amin added that if students, clubs and organizations on campus are aware of the SGA’s presence and its role, they could use their budget to benefit individual student clubs by offering $3,500 of their budget for up to two events for each club.
“We have more flexibility for clubs to have more money,” said Ahmed Adam, the SGA treasurer. “If it’s a good event or club, we support it, the purpose was to increase the amount of money we give to clubs.”
With their refined budget this year, the SGA wants to improve facilities on campus such as the restrooms and lighting systems in some areas of the cafeteria, Amin said.
“I would like to see Student Government maintain the escalators and make sure they are working,” said Brandon Persaud, an Accounting major at York College. “Also, they should ventilate the bathrooms and make sure they are in good condition.”
SGA’s plans are nothing new. In fact, many of the improvements (especially to the library) have been recycled from last year. They include renovating the library by improving library services, having more quiet sections, placing more computers, printers, scanners and adding new textbooks. They also intend to add printers in the SGA’s office where students can do some of their printing. Amin added that they plan to reopen the SGA Computer lab with extended weekday and weekend hours.
