At the end of each school year, ASU's Undergraduate Student Government allocates unused money from the previous school year's budget to further improve the student activities and campus facilities.
USG presidents are responsible for allocating this unspent money, also referred to as carry-forward money, toward their respective campuses. These new additions are implemented over the summer and sporadically throughout the school year.
Tempe
Allocated carry-forward money: Approx. $82,850
Tempe generally gets a larger portion of the allocated money due to the sheer size of its student population. But despite the fact that Tempe is granted the largest amount of the four, all campuses are able to meet the requests made by its president.
“(All USGs) have been able to fund all their summer requests,” USG Tempe President Brandon Bishop said. “It really helps to pay for things that you don’t necessarily think of throughout the year.”
As for what Tempe plans to do with its allocated funding, Bishop said he aims to provide extra funding for projects that USG Tempe already funds. This includes child care subsidies, safety escort expenses and other USG operations, such as the bike co-op.
“Bike co-op renovations will be huge, because with that we’re able to purchase new office equipment to make it a better functioning process for students,” Bishop said.
Downtown
Allocated carry-forward money: Approx. $22,000
USGD President Jackson Dangremond said the campus' money went toward enhancements within the Student Organizational Support offices in Downtown Phoenix.
Dangremond said the enhancements include new supplies for the SOS, such as a new copier/printer, paper cutters and upgrades throughtout the office.
West
Allocated carry-forward money: Approx. $13,000
As for the West campus, USGW President Sydney Wallace focused on spreading the campus carry-forward money toward organizations that requested some financial support, including the Programming and Activities Board and the Culture Coalition.
Wallace said she believes it is also necessary to put more money into sustainability, event funding and club start-ups.
Jacob Alan, a student of the West campus said he would like to see some of the carry-forward money put toward things such as improving the Shuttle Wi-Fi.
“I use the shuttle a lot,” said Alan. “It would be nice to have better Wi-Fi, so I can get homework, as well as other things done.”
Polytechnic
Allocated carry-forward money: Approx. $19,000
USG Polytechnic President Ryan O’Hara took a different route with his campus' carry-forward money by focusing on veterans. He said he works with Kelly Stewart, a specialist senior and military advocate at the Pat Tillman Veterans Center at Polytechnic.
“We’re really building a great, new relationship here between student government and our student veterans,” said O’Hara.
By providing funds to remodel the Veterans Center on campus, O’Hara said he and his staff hope to provide an atmosphere that keeps student veterans more involved on campus.
“At Poly, we have a lot of student veterans that go to class, and then go home,” said O’Hara. “My hope is that through the reinvention of the Veterans Center, we can give the student veterans an opportunity and a reason to become greater stakeholders in not just the Poly community, but the ASU community as a whole.”
Reach the reporter at vkeys@asu.edu or follow @VKeys1231 on Twitter.
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