The General Assembly met on Wednesday. Credit: Torrance Lang | Lantern Reporter
The Undergraduate Student Government General Assembly met Wednesday to approve the remainder of the Autumn budget and fill nine vacant senator seats.
The remainder budget totaled to around $77,000 to account for the rest of the semester’s budget with the new administration, according to the budget document. Last Autumn’s budget totaled around $410,000, according to budget documents on the USG website.
Chief Financial Officer, Rohan Patel, a second-year in finance, presented the proposed budget. He detailed the largest expenses, broke down costs, explained the allocations of funds and where the funding came from.
The six largest cost items account for nearly 85 percent of the $77,000 budget, coming in with a cost of around $65,000.
The most expensive part of the budget this semester was renewing the New York Times yearly subscription, which has granted article access to all Ohio State students who sign up since 2022. This totaled at around $40,000, negotiated through a flat rate annual contract with the newspaper and paid for by the Student Activity Fee, also called the SAF.
The Student Activity Fee is charged to all undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled at Ohio State’s Columbus campus. USG receives about seven percent of the money from this fee after the university covers other fixed costs, according to their budget document.
Throughout the approved budget, USG went back and forth on the wording for SAF, calling it the Student Activity Fund as well as the Student Activity Fee.
The second largest part of the approved budget is USG and Governmental Relation’s Washington, D.C. trip, at a total of around $7,000, funded by SAF.
The next largest cost items were Clean Up Columbus, the Black History Gala, the General Assembly Outreach Events and the Black Joy Art Exhibit, which add up to be around $18,000.
Senator Christopher Cade, a third-year in public policy analysis and political science, proposed an amendment to increase funding for the Washington, D.C. trip from $7,050 to $8,000, adjusting the breakdown of the proposed budget, which initially allocated money for car rentals and gas.
The amendment aimed to strike the money for rentals and gas and instead allocate $2,600 specifically for transportation costs.
Cade says that increasing the budget for the trip can accommodate changing prices while offering flexibility when it comes to different types of travel.
“I left that intentionally vague,” Cade said. “As the chief of staff mentioned, as well as the senior director of issues, that funding amount is so high because of the changing costs and last year’s rate is not this year’s rate.”
During the meeting, the assembly also filled nine seats in the Senate. The seats filled represented the College of Nursing, Engineering, Education and Human Ecology and Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Filled seats also represented the on-campus and off-campus living areas.
Speaker Terrell McCann, a third-year in business administration, praised the steering committee, which approves “the upcoming week’s agenda by reviewing submitted pieces of legislation from senators,” for their efforts.
“I want to [acknowledge] the steering committee for all of their hard work and what they were able to do,” McCann said. “They work very hard, and I appreciate them very much.”
