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Requesting Students’ Association Funding

SA Finance Committee and UAFBC membership: These are the individuals responsible for recommending all General Activity Fee (GAF) allocations to the South Dakota State University (SDSU) President. 

Members to the Students’ Association (SA) Finance Committee are selected by the SA Finance Chair and the SA Vice President. It requires a minimum of five SA Senators, either the SA President or Vice President as an Ex-Officio member, and is chaired by the SA Finance Chair.   

The University Activity Fee and Budgeting Committee (UAFBC) is comprised of thirteen (13) members including three (3) faculty members (At-Large), one (1) Career Service member nominated by the Career Service Advisory Council, one (1) Professional Staff/NFE member (from a unit not funded by General Activity Fee) nominated by the Professional Staff Advisory Council, one (1) Academic Dean or Associate Dean nominated by the Provost, one (1) Student Association (SA) President, one (1) SA Vice President, one (1) SA Finance Chair, three (3) current SA Senators (two of these representatives must not be serving on the SA Finance Committee) nominated by the Students’ Association, and one (1) student Residence Hall member nominated the Residence Hall Association (RHA). Committee members will serve three-year staggered terms and can serve two successive terms. Students will serve a one-year term.  For purpose of UAFBC refer to the University Charter.

  1. Student Organizations or events that provide a service to all SDSU students.
  2. Events that enhance all SDSU students’ knowledge including arts, health, humanities, and sciences (i.e. the Music Council).
  3. Events that provide all SDSU students free or reduced admission price to them (i.e. Prairie Reparatory Theatre, State University Theatre, Safe Ride).
  4. Organizations that represent SDSU in competition (i.e. Quarter-Scale Tractor Team).
  5. Operation of a facility on campus that benefits all SDSU Students (i.e. the Union, Miller Wellness Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs and Accessibility, KSDJ).
  1. Organizations that are not SDSU recognized student organizations, except those listed above.
  2. Organizations who have not submitted a complete Uniform Budget Request Form, unless approved by the SA Finance Committee.
  3. Any organization that has flagrantly violated UAFBC or SA directions (i.e. organizations that knowingly violated the Budgeting Guidelines).
  4. Charities or Fundraisers may not be funded unless it can be demonstrated that General Activity Fee (GAF) dollars makes it free for all SDSU students to attend and participate.
    1. Groups receiving GAF dollars must demonstrate that monies received cover costs for students to attend for free and do not just offset raised funds, which would have otherwise paid those operational costs.
  5. Organizations or events with the primary effect of generating income for the personal use and benefit of the sponsoring organization members or on behalf of for-profit entities.*
  6. Operational budgets of organizations or events with the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, advancing any candidate or ballot issue in an off-campus election, or financing off-campus lobbying or political activities by non-students. However, events put on by such organizations that are open to all members of the campus community and do not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, advancing any candidate or ballot issue in an off-campus election, or financing off-campus lobbying or political activities by non-students may be funded by GAF dollars.*
  7. Operational budgets of organizations with a closed social or academic membership.
  8. Events or organizations whose sole purpose is advertising and/or recruiting for SDSU. (Groups must be able to demonstrate that GAF dollars does not fund events with the main intent to recruit future students to SDSU.)

*This section does not prohibit a student governance body, recognized by the institution, whose leadership is popularly elected by the students, from using GAF to communicate its position on behalf of all students, either through lobbying efforts before legislative bodies or through publicity communicating its positions on initiated or referred measures.

These are important to pay attention to as they help standardize the budgeting process.

  1. Travel/Lodging/Food/Beverages – this is considered on a case-by-case basis.  Most organizations should attempt to fund these items with non-GAF dollar allocations.
  2. Student Involvement:
    1. How many participants are there in an organization?
    2. How many students utilize the services or activities provided by a department or organization?
  3. GAF dollars may only be allocated to cover expenses related to scholarship or awards if the student receiving the award is providing a service to all students.
  4. Budgeting Histories – Histories are a valuable tool in determining the worth of funding for a particular organization.  Organizations with a budget history will have to demonstrate they have spent monies allocated in the past wisely.  Those groups without a history should demonstrate spending habits on fundraised monies, and need to have clear direction on how funds are spent.
  5. An organization’s fundraising efforts shall have a positive impact on the budget process. Organizations should maintain or decrease the percentage of GAF of allocation of their total budget each year if possible.
  6. Organizations found to have abused GAF dollars will receive a written notice in the organization’s file. This notice will be read each year for two (2) years after the incident. This notice is a recommendation to UAFBC and the SA Senate from previous UAFBC and SA members on budgetary issues.
  7. Academic organizations must produce a written memo from the dean or their department head stating why the individual college cannot fund their organization before they are eligible to receive GAF dollars.
  8. Groups with a large balance forward from the previous year (i.e. those <5% of the previous year’s budget) need better budgeting tactics for the future.
  9. Large increases from year to year need proper identification and explanation.
  10. GAF request should not be 100% of the student organization’s total budget.
  11. All GAF requests must fit within budgeting guidelines as listed previously.

Special allocations are not to support ongoing operational costs. This allocation is requested for use when an organization has a substantial budget shortfall and needs money to support a specific, one-time event. 

  1. Organization must give 3 weeks’ notice before the SA Senate hearing is scheduled, unless otherwise directed by the SA President and Finance Chair.
  2. The Finance Committee will meet and review all special allocations and give a recommendation to the SA Senate, unless otherwise directed by the SA President.
  3. Special allocations requested after the new SA Senate takes office will not be allocated until the next FY, unless approved by the Finance Chair.
  4. If it is possible to fundraise for the event, the organization will be asked to do so before scheduling the Finance Committee hearing.
  5. The request must qualify under Budgeting Guidelines.
  6. The SA/UAFBC reserves the right to allocate all, part, or none of the available monies.
  7. The SA/UAFBC reserves the right to deny any request.

The purpose of the New Venture Fund is to help new and existing organizations that are not currently receiving General Activity Fees to request funds outside of the normal budget cycle.

  1. Although the New Venture Fund is also available to existing organizations, priority is given to new organizations or those organizations that are new to the budgeting process.
  2. An event for all SDSU students most times is a special allocation, however, for organizations that have never received funding it may be New Venture fund allocation.
  3. The organization requesting New Venture funds may receive funding for a specific event only once.
  4. The organization requesting New Venture funds may not receive funds from the New Venture Fund more than once in any five-year period.
  5. The organization requesting New Venture funds must be an approved SDSU Organization.
  6. All requests must qualify under the Budgeting Guidelines.
  7. The Finance Committee shall review all New Venture Fund applications. A recommendation will be issued to the SA Senate from the Finance Committee.
  8. Organizations requesting New Venture funds may not be receiving money through the regular budgeting process.
  9. The SA/UAFBC reserves the right to allocate all, part, or none of the available monies.
  10. The SA/UAFBC reserves the right to deny any request.

Review the organization’s expenditures, contributions from other organizations, departmental and supplementary funding, goals, number of students involved, the overall impact on campus, etc.