The Student Government Association has passed their fall 2011 budget and this semester, there are several changes that SGA believes will benefit the student body.

At the Sept. 14 SGA Senate meeting, this semester’s budget of $211,383 was agreed on and passed. The budget, which comes from student fees, funds student activities and organizations on campus. Though the overall budget is actually down by $1,000 from last semester, SGA has reshuffled it to allow for a higher amount to go toward allocations for student organizations, meaning organizations will have the opportunity to receive more money than ever before.

Last semester there was $75,000 allocated for organizations, plus $10,000 for post allocations. Post-allocations allows organizations to reapply and fix any technical errors on their paperwork and receive extra money if the funds are available, said Brian Gibbons, SGA finance director and finance senior.

This semester, SGA has allotted a total of $95,000 toward allocations and post allocations, $10,000 more than before, and almost half of SGA’s overall budget, Gibbons said.

Increasing the allocations budget will allow each organization to possibly receive more money than in past years.

“Chances are, results will be better,” he said.

The rest of the budget goes into internal operations, external operations, line items, Loup Garou, the Richard Frank Research Grant and executive scholarships.

Internal operations include the payroll of the executive staff of SGA, office supplies, public relations resources and Hub supplies. This semester there is $9,790 being allotted to it.

External operations include allocations and post allocations, graduate test reimbursements, technology reimbursements and the readership program, which is SGA’s initiative to give out the New York Times and USA Today to students. More than half of the overall budget, $144,599.50, is allotted to this area.

SGA will reimburse students for their first graduate test and will also reimburse students up to $100 for technology products bought from the bookstore or efollett.com, Gibbons said.

“Since the graduate test reimbursement program has started, we have reimbursed 67 students,” Gibbons said.

Since the technology reimbursement program has started, SGA has only reimbursed 14 students, so its budget went down this semester from $5,000 to $3,000, Gibbons said.

Line items are all events or merchandise that SGA provides to students on campus, such as President’s Council, Maroon Platoon shirts, pep rallies, SGA retreats, Wolves on the Prowl, Contingency Week and Loyola Week. This year there is a total of $13,766.50 allotted to all line items.

The only new line item this year is Contingency Week, which will serve as a replacement to SGA’s Meet and Greet. Instead of having a one-night event, they will host a week of events in which people can get to know SGA representatives, Gibbons said.

Other major expenses for SGA are Loup Garou, the Richard Frank Research Grant and executive scholarships. These total $35,227.

As part of the university’s centennial celebration, SGA allotted $20,000 towards Loup Garou, the annual spring concert.

The Richard Frank Research Grant was allotted $3,000 and can be used by undergraduate students to fund their research projects.

The executive scholarships are awarded to the president, vice president and chief justice. According to the SGA constitution, the president receives a scholarship covering half of tuition, the vice president receives a scholarship covering a fourth of tuition and the chief justice receives a scholarship for one-tenth of tuition.

Kristen Himmelberg can be reached at [email protected]