Student Government shifted the student organization budget cycle from a seasonal to a semesterly schedule in hopes of simplifying the budget requests process.
The move — passed at the April 17 general body meeting — is part of an effort to revise Student Government’s financial guidelines, the organization’s document outlining how funds are distributed.
“The whole reason is student feedback,” said Christo Maheras ’26, the chair of the financial guidelines ad hoc committee and former Student Government treasurer. He explained that feedback was gathered by a survey created by the committee.
Of the 226 student responses the committee collected, 65.5% of students selected semesterly budgeting over annual and quarterly requests as the budget schedule that would “most benefit” their organization.
Student Government President Alex Brown ‘26 called the new budget cycle more “simplistic” and “straightforward.”
“We’ll go and educate the club treasurers and organizations as much as we can about this new process, but it was the preferred changes that we found in the survey,” Brown said.
Under the previous schedule, clubs would submit budget requests for three periods: the first occurring from summer through the first few weeks of the fall semester, the second occurring for the remainder of the fall semester through the first two weeks of the spring semester and the final period including the remainder of the spring semester through July 1. The cycle also included optional winter and end-of-year sessions.
In addition to responding to student feedback, Treasurer Gracie Vale ‘27 said the new cycle seeks to resolve student confusion during the transitional weeks between budgets. Vale wrote in an email that this often resulted from club members not understanding when budget periods ended.
Maheras added that these transitional periods were also difficult for the Office of Student Involvement, the office tasked with distributing and managing the club funds allocated by Student Government.
“It was kind of a Herculean task for Student Involvement,” Maheras said, adding that the office spent the transitional period balancing ongoing purchase requests with calculating the money left over for future budget cycles.
“We are realistic and know that it might take time for all to get used to change,” Associate Director of Student Involvement Allison Williams wrote in an email. “However, overall we feel the new budget cycle is cleaner in terms of the timeline and will eliminate the waiting period at the beginning of each semester.”
While Student Government has already voted to amend its financial guidelines with the new cycle, the general body is continuing to evaluate other changes, including a larger emphasis on whether the funds being allocated are mission-critical for the club.
Treasurer of the Ski and Board Club Benjamin Reohr ‘25 said that it would be the responsibility of the incoming club’s executive board to understand the new changes.
“If you’re in the summer, it’s really, really hard to anticipate maybe expenses that are six months down the line,” Reohr said.
“You can look at it negatively, you can look at it positively,” he continued. “But I’m sure there’s some valid reasons why they’ve tried to shift this.”
Several other clubs expressed indifference towards the changes.
