On September 27th, the Student Government Association convened in the Burke Mountain Room for their regularly scheduled meeting. This meeting had updates on budgets, along with an announcement from SGA President Alberto Bustamante regarding VSCSA wanting the general student body to have a bigger opportunity to get involved.
Progress has been made in the budget department, as both the SGA and the Campus Activities Board have been given “conservative” low-end budgets. The SGA was given $60,000 as their number for their general fund. Meanwhile, CAB has been “cleared to continue planning and executing events” with a budget of $50,000, including what has already been spent on this semester’s events. These numbers are not the official numbers and may change in the future.
In addition to the release of the preliminary budget, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee submitted a funding request for their 4th Annual Trunk-or-Treat. The full request passed the SGA general board, allotting $4,931.53 for the event. This budget request included a new grill for SAAC, several food items, what is required for the candy bags, and 125 of the “Sting the Stigma” shirts. The event is being held on Halloween night in the SHAPE parking lot and is open to both students and the general public, with clubs being invited to set up their own vehicles for the event. Clubs that are interested in participating are advised to email a member of SAAC so that a spot in the circle can be reserved.
The Vermont State College Student Association, or VSCSA, is the board made up of students and student leaders that directly report to the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees contains one representative from VSCSA, Perry Ragouzis (Castleton ‘24), who is looking to create many smaller subcommittees on each of the five campuses revolving around campus life and living, such as the dining hall or laundry machines. These subcommittees would report their findings to the VSCSA in order to have the students’ voices heard at the administrative level. Publicly available Board meetings will also be available to view by Zoom links to be sent out by SGA. Before this, there was only one representative in the VSC Board of Trustees that would have a voice and that is the Student Trustee, who only comes from one campus and cannot reasonably represent every campus. This is a major change that can mean all student voices can be heard.