UOSA budget workshop helps student organizations with primary funding

UOSA hosted a budget workshop Wednesday to help eligible student organizations know how to complete their budgets for primary funding.

Cassandra Kolenda, Ways and Means Committee chairwoman, led the workshop and took about 30 student organization members down UOSA’s primary funding budget application line by line. This workshop was the last one before the budget deadline at 4 p.m. today.

Primary funding is mostly used by student organizations to fund their meetings, programs and other activities, according to UOSA’s Budget Committee website. This can also include traveling and food or refreshment expenses.

Renoj Varghese, a member of Campus Activities Council, said he attended the event to make sure the council’s budget was filled out correctly and to determine when the Budget Committee will conduct interviews.

The workshop supplied other information that helped as well, management and information systems senior Varghese said.

“They went through things people could get confused about, like itemizing your budget,” Varghese said.

Campus Activities Council is an active organization on campus that hosts numerous campus-wide events each semester. The organization has requested about $170,000 for next academic year.

Student Chapter of American Meteorological Society President Stacey Hitchcock attended the meeting to request about $7,000, she said. Last year, the student group received $150.

The larger request is due to the meteorological group having about 85 regular members, she said.

“It can be very expensive to provide food for such a large membership,” Hitchcock said.

Her group’s budget was already completed, but she attended the event to make sure everything was correct and to ask questions, she said.

Once the Budget Committee receives all the budgets, members will take about two to three weeks to sort through them and determine allotments, Kolenda said.

The primary funding budget must be completed and submitted to Undergraduate Student Congress by the twelfth week of school, according to UOSA’s code annotated.

Kolenda said she was pleased with how many students attended the meeting.

“A lot more people came than I expected, which is good,” Kolenda said. “I like helping people.”

If you have any questions regarding the budget form, visit http://www.ou.edu/content/uosa/BC or call Cassandra Kolenda at 405-325-5471.

Chase Cook

Chase is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Staff Writer, Managing Editor, Editor in Chief, Managing Editor and Assistant Campus Editor.