At the beginning of the year Student Government started out with $44,000 and the Apportionment Board started out with $44,560. But the year was cut short due to COVID-19 which raises a question of whether or not all the money was spent.

Student Government President Carson Gordon said the Student Government doesn’t get to choose the amount that they would like to receive.

“We can request a particular amount, but it is ultimately up to apportionment board and how much money is in the budget to be divided out at the time,” Gordon said.

She said the way Student Government comes up with a request is to look at their budget the current year and see how well and effectively they used that amount of money they received. She said they usually ask for the same amount each year but that’s not always the case.

“A substantial portion of our budget goes towards our operating expenses like paying for graduate advisors and office supplies. The rest of it we put towards events and programs we have,” Gordon said.

She said she feels it’s important to spend the money of these things because without graduate advisors and office supplies, they wouldn’t be able to run meetings properly or keep their organizations functioning.

“The office supplies are essentials like the paper and binders used for senate meeting agendas and minutes. Those are necessities for our organization,” Gordon said.

She said with the remainder of the budget they usually try to spend the money on events that will most benefit the student body.

Gordon said the budget they receive helps the students at Eastern because it allows Student Government to keep functioning so that they are able to approve RSO’s, approve fee changes and co-sponsor or provide funds for important events.

She said she was unsure of how much money was spent or left over from the expenses so far in the year because the year has not officially ended yet.

“Our year doesn’t end until July 1, so we’re not sure yet. We’re still working on virtual programming, so we won’t have those numbers for a while,” Gordon said.

She said typically at the end of the year they spend all of their money because they have been receiving less money in the recent years, but if there is any left over money it goes back into the reserve fund.

“It’s a fund where leftover money from the Apportionment Board funded groups go. This is also where extra money can come out of if Apportionment Board approves one of the groups requests for additional funds,” Gordon said.

Apportionment Board Chair Samira Abdoulaye Pedila said that the Apportionment board spent their money on Laurel salary, insurance that each department has to pay if they have an employee, their secretary and paper.

She said it’s important that they spend money on these things and not elsewhere because Apportionment Board has a set place they have to spend their money. They do not have much flexibility like other boards do.

“We don’t put on events like the other boards. It’s important because we need Apportionment Board to be able to continue to have meetings and allocate money to the other boards,” Pedila said.

She said the money Apportionment Board receives helps the students at Eastern because if it were not for the funds they would not be able to allocate the money to the Student Recreation, Student Government or University Board. The money is needed to keep their boards running.

Pedila said they had spent all of their money from the year and had none left over.

                                    Jelan Buchanan can be reached at 581-2812 or at jjbuchanan@eiu.edu