Requesting for funding from the Student Government Association (SGA) does not display the fun in funding. In fact, this semester there is hardly any fund in funding. The Coronavirus has obviously caused some massive changes around world, with one of those changes being SGA funding.

Every club at UNG have one thing in common – they want more funding. Every club receives their yearly budget from SGA but can also make requests for mini grants when they believe more money to be necessary. Some clubs make many requests, while some make few.

Mark Jeremiah, former President of the Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Club only requested one mini grant which was partially granted. On the other end of the spectrum, Stephanie Ortez, President of the Speech and Debate Club, made the statement “I have requested three annual budgets and about 20 mini grants in the four years I have been at UNG.” The requests keep coming in. Unfortunately, the funds aren’t going out.

To better understand SGA funding, first you must understand where SGA gets their funds from. SGA funding comes from student activity fees, also known as mandatory student fees.  These fees come from students enrolled in classes across various campuses, thus, some campuses receive more funding than others. Because of this, funds go down when there are less students enrolled for in-person classes.

Houston Hall, the Director of Finance explains where funding comes from in more detail. “Each campus individually has an amount (of funding) that they get from the student populous that they pay with their tuition.” The Coronavirus has caused a drop in overall enrollment.

“Basically we had a third of our budget removed from each campus due to Covid”- Houston Hall

SGA funding has gone down tremendously due to the Coronavirus.  Hall explained. Therefore the issue for SGA is that clubs continue to seek the same funding as previous semesters, if not more; however, SGA can not afford these requests.

While the funding has gone down, complaints have gone up. “People always have complaints about funding” Hall stated, “unfortunately there is not a whole lot we can do about that because it is controlled by the amount of enrollment.” SGA has other suggestions for funding during these trying times.

Hall made the suggestion that clubs attempt to find funding from outside sources. There are a lot of local small businesses that could potentially provide that. While SGA does still have some funds for clubs, it is very limited, so it might be a good idea to look elsewhere if possible.

Everyone wants more club funding. Likewise, students want their tuition to be as small as possible. Sadly, this pandemic has shown that the student body can’t have it both ways. The only way to help improve this dilemma is to all work together as a student body. SGA Senator Skylar Cochran said it best when she stated “working together is what makes UNG great.”