USG senate allocates more than $155,000 to committees, assemblies
The senate passed a bill to increase funding with a remainder of funds available for the spring in its yearly budget.
By BEATRICE CALALANG
The Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously passed senate bill 145-12 in an emergency meeting Tuesday night to amend USG’s 2025-26 fiscal budget. The bill allocated an additional $155,400 to USG committees and assemblies.
USG’s expected budget for the current fiscal year is now $2,540,920, a roughly 2.3% increase from the previous version of the budget. The senate first allocated funding for the 2025-26 budget at an April 15 meeting, which included a roughly 12% budget cut for programming assemblies, among other budget decreases.
“We’re dedicated to utilizing our budget in a manner that’s most beneficial to student needs and also accurately utilizing them to their highest potential,” chief financial officer Avery Horton said during Tuesday’s meeting.
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In an interview with the Daily Trojan after the meeting, speaker of the senate Jeremiah Boisrond said USG’s budget fluctuates based on money brought in from the student programming fee, a mandatory flat fee that is included in every undergraduate student’s tuition. Boisrond said USG expects its budget to change in the spring once it receives a final number of enrolled undergraduate students in the University from Student Life.
Boisrond said the number of students enrolled also changes depending on who graduates at the end of the fall semester, as well as the amount of incoming transfer students and spring admits.
During the meeting, several senators raised questions about the timing of the bill. Senator Kevin Hoang asked Horton if the allocations had been sent to programming officers to look over ahead of time.
Horton, who wrote the bill, said that letters will be sent to every assembly that received funding allocations as soon as the amendment was made. She said every assembly was made aware of the emergency meeting happening online as well.
Horton said every programming assembly was invited to present to demonstrate financial need to the allocations committee in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the meeting. She said 13 assemblies and committees were presented out of the 20 groups.
Horton also said there is still $31,000 of unused money in USG’s budget, which will be left untapped unless an assembly requests funding in the spring.
“When we do spring allocations, those groups that didn’t present and didn’t get an increase this round are able to get an increase in their budget without it being taken from someone else’s budget,” Horton said during the meeting.
