The Undergraduate Student Government Association recently passed a resolution mandating that the Office of Facilities Management bill clubs and organizations for services rendered for hosting events within the fiscal year.
The office charges clubs and organizations for services including the set up and break down of event equipment.
However, SGA President Anthony Campenni said, sometimes they do so after the fiscal year ends when SGA’s budget for that organization has already been used. He said organizations are then forced to pay for a past event with the budget for a new school year.
“SGA funds a lot of clubs and organizations and our money is swept [away] every fiscal year,” said Campenni. “[SGA is intervening] in order to make sure clubs and organizations that request money for Facilities from SGA are being billed. If a club is billed past the fiscal year, they won’t have access to those SGA funds they were allocated.”
Jose Villafuerte, junior criminal justice major and member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, said, “Every year when we ask Facilities for an estimate, they say they won’t know until after the event, so we don’t know if we have enough money for Facilities,” he said.
However, Maria Lemme, associate director of administration in the Office of Facilities Management, said she usually issues invoices to the Student Activity Fee Accounts Office one week after an event.
“I usually give them an estimate up front too,” she said. “But I would love to have a meeting with [SGA] to work everything out.”
But, Greissy Amorocho, accounts manager in the Student Activity Fee Accounts Office, said that was not always the case and that Facilities sometimes charged organizations’ accounts several months after an event.
“They just charged for Sharkapalooza and that happened in the beginning of the year,” she said.
Campenni said the petition will ask Facilities to bill organizations by July 1 of each year. He said the resolution will be taken to Brad Williams, Ed.D., dean of Student Affairs for review.
