The Allocations Committee plans to end the semester with more funds than expected.

Andrew Ljubi, senator for business and finance of the Undergraduate Student Senate and chair of the Allocations Committee, said the committee received a smaller budget this year, and they’ve still saved up more money than at this time last year. He said he didn’t know the exact numbers, but he did know the committee will have more money going into the spring semester than it had a year ago.

The starting budget for the Fall 2007 through Spring 2008 school year was close to $140,000. As of today, $82,000 remains. The lump sum comes from student activities fees, which amounts to about $300,000 each year.

Ljubi said ACPB gets 54 percent of the student activities fees, May 4 Task Force gets 1.75 percent for commemoration activities and the rest comes to Allocations.

The $140,000 is to be allocated throughout the year, but once the money’s gone, it’s gone, he said.

“Any registered undergraduate student organization can request money,” he said. “We can’t just give money to a certain person working on a paper.”

To date, the Allocations Committee has granted 14 requests totaling more than $54,000. Half of that money was awarded to two groups, Black United Students and the Kent State Ice Hockey team.

BUS requested $25,510 for its Homecoming comedy show, and the hockey team needed $10,500 for the 2007-2008 game schedule.

Those two organizations have had the only large amounts allocated. The rest have been under $5,000 with most around the $1,000 range.

Organizations fill out a request and then present it to the committee at one of its meetings, six weeks before the money would be used.

Most of the requests cover event costs and advertising, Ljubi said. Some organizations include T-shirts and other unneeded extras in their plans. Instead of just approving everything on the list, the members of the committee spend time weaning out unnecessary items.

“We’re trimming a lot of the fat,” he said. “We’ve got $3,000 requests down to $900.

“We’ve added more money to requests for better advertising, too. If we’ve seen previous allocated money using advertising successfully, we’ll suggest that (advertising route) to a different organization.”

Unused money makes its way back to the committee, too, Ljubi said.

“Sometimes group requests fail, and money comes back,” he said.

For example, those organizations who request $1,000 for a speaker but need to raise more money outside of Allocations and fail to do so must return the allocated money back to the committee.

Each week has seen an average of two to three requests, but Ljubi said he believes the week after Thanksgiving will see a lot more.

“If they want to make that six week deadline and have something in February, they have to plan for it soon,” he said.

After the event the allocated money went toward is over, the student organizations must develop a post program analysis.

Ljubi said this analysis helps the committee see whether the money was spent successfully or not.

“They’ll say, ‘This is the type of ads that worked for us,’ and we’ll pass that information on,” he said.

The Allocations Committee meets at 2 p.m. Fridays in the Student Center’s Governance Chambers. Today’s meeting will feature four requests totaling close to $44,000 dollars. Whether or not all of the money will be granted will be determined among the committee members.

Contact student politics reporter Kelly Pickerel at [email protected].