USG hard at work at their office (File Photo/The Daily Campus)
The University of Connecticut’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) has recently passed legislation to fix policies regarding the funding of student organizations. Past policies needed revision, Nandam Tumu, chief justice of USG, said.
The new procedures are expected to allow more organizations to reach the $10,000 funding cap and pay less out of pocket, Tumu said.
“This new legislation is a rewrite of the funding policies completed after over a year of preparation. The past funding policies were confusing and left a lot to interpretation,” Tumu said in an email. “The new ones describe in more detail what is required of students, and increase percentages for funding.”
USG funding is only available to Tier II student organizations, Tumu said. Tier II organizations are defined by UConn’s website as organizations with four executive board members who have completed training and renew a constitution every two years.
In order to receive funding, these groups have been expected to complete requests, which would then be reviewed by USG’s Funding Staff. Existing policies have not served these organizations well in the past, Priyanka Thakkar, USG Comptroller, said.
“These policies were created to try to streamline the communication with Tier II’s. We also wanted to create a more efficient process for voting on requests,” Thakkar said. “Funding Requests are sent in by Tier II’s and voted on by our Funding Staff. The policies determine the amount of funding groups get. Our last ones were not very efficient and thus we wanted to make things more clear for groups.”
USG is a group of peer-elected students at the University of Connecticut that seek to help students and student organizations, Tumu said. To get involved with USG, students can join one of its committees, run for senate or attend a senate meeting to have their voices heard, Tumu said.
Community input is very important to USG, Thakkar said. A town hall in which student groups could voice their opinions of the new legislation was held before the new policy was proposed to the University Senate.
“We hope to have another town hall to get student feedback.” Thakkar said. “Our next goal in terms of funding is to be more communicative to student groups and truly be as accessible as possible.”
Miranda Garcia is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at miranda.r.garcia@uconn.edu.
