With the year finally in full swing, SGA held its first meeting Thursday. After the formalities of roll call and swearing in new members, the General Assembly began working on the first substantial issues of the year.
While the budget was approved during the summer session of SGA, the General Assembly still had to be informed and reaffirm it.
The entire budget is comprised of the 37 percent of the Student Activity Fee, and is $104,424.
Of that, around half will go directly to club funding with the rest going to administrative costs and other initiatives.
Club funding procedures will be updated in the coming months. SGA Treasurer Taylor Shaffer proposed a new system in which clubs and organizations would be broken up into three tiers: $4,500, $2,500 and $1,000.
Each month, the organizations would be able to request the amount corresponding with their tier.
Tiers would be determined by club participation, fundraising initiatives and other discretionary items.
Clubs will be tiered later this semester. Each club presents its request to the budget committee, and will be approved or rejected based on its need.
Shaffer also mentioned that receipts are critically important for reimbursement from SGA.
Failure to do so will result in reimbursement rejection and the organization will be banned from requesting any more funding from SGA for the remainder of the semester.
Once a club receives money, it will need to fill out a report after its event.
SGA will be voting on this proposed funding change at its next meeting on Sept. 19.
Finally, SGA President Luke King discussed the “SEA” program (Students Engaged Abroad). This is one potential new initiative by SGA.
According to King, students would be sent abroad, and use that experience to enhance their educational experience at Gannon. This program would be funded by the Special Project Fund.
Freshman elections for SGA will be held Thursday. Members will be sworn in at the next SGA meeting.

MICHAEL HAAS
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