SGA announced a $4,300 budget decrease for the 2018-19 year during the Sept. 7 meeting, straining its ability to provide Student Leadership funds for student organizations.

The SGA budget for 2018-19, awarded from the student services fund, sits at $28,309, of which $23,000 is dedicated to senator stipends, according to the SGA budget report presented by Noel Keeble, chief financial officer. This puts the current allotment for additional expenses, including Student Leadership Travel Funds at $944.

Riley Owens, SGA president, said budget cuts are familiar to both SGA and student organizations in recent years.

“It takes savvy management and inventive ideas to raise the funds necessary to represent the student body; however, we have had success in the past with fundraising, particularly on the Westville campus,” Owens said.

Last year, SGA spent $460 to cover the cost of food for events and town halls, according to SGA budget documents. The organization also estimates that $169 will be needed to cover stoles for members of SGA that are graduating this year, leaving $364 to use to approve Student Leadership Travel Funds. The requested Student Leadership Funds for the 2017-18 year was $3,000.

During the Sept. 7 SGA meeting, the members of SGA discussed ways to cover the expected cost and were reluctant to cut the amount in the budget allotted for stipends. Owens said he would veto a bill to cut the senators’ stipends budget since the amount of work senators put in would make it unfair given they come in with an expected stipend amount.

Keeble noted the possibility of using the SGA COOL account to cover additional expenses. The account was created prior to unification to house the funds raised by Purdue North Central SGA members during butter braid fundraisers. Owens noted that they will need to regain access to the account, but that he believed it should have about $3,000 in it leftover from previous years.

Zachary Jakubowski, Speaker of the House and former SGA president, brought up the idea of butter braid fundraising as a potential option to gather funds again should the COOL account not cover the difference, a tactic the PNC SGA used to raise funds in the past.

The members agreed that will be the most likely course of action should they need additional funds once they access the COOL account.

Owens said he is optimistic about the situation. “If we put in the extra legwork to raise funds, then the students should not see any decrease in our impact on campus. Event with a lower SSF given budget this year, we, as an organization, have much higher goals of impacting the students time here at PNW than in previous year,” Owens said.