In recent Student Government Board meetings, board members have expressed concerns about increased allocations spending and whether the $900,000 budget will last the whole school year. Data compiled by 欧美日b大片 shows while SGB is granting allocations at an unprecedented rate, the denial rate is the highest since its budget increased in 2019.
As of Feb. 5, the board has allocated $499,312.09 across 74 requests. At this same time last year, the board allocated $308,998.22 across 67 requests, about $190,000 less than this year.
SGB鈥檚 $900,000 allocations budget is funded by the , which costs full-time undergraduates $100 and part-time students $30 per semester, Student organizations use the allocated money to hold events, attend conferences and fund various activities.
鈥淭he amount of money we have to give out has been set at $900,000, even though our number of requests has almost doubled in the last decade,鈥� SGB President Sarah Mayer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a struggle to give [funds] as generously as we wish we could. At the same time, we don鈥檛 want to run out of money.鈥澛�
The data sourced from 欧美日b大片 covers allocations requests that SGB heard at public meetings over the past six years. The allocations committee hears requests under $2,000 privately. It is unclear how many requests under $2,000 the allocations committee has granted this year.
Allocations Chair Nicole Zhang said requests have increased because student organizations have decreased their fundraising efforts.
鈥淐lubs who have found ways to self-fund their events in the past are now looking at allocations as their first resource,鈥� Zhang said. 鈥淭he goal of allocations is to distribute money fairly and equitably, but we have to scrutinize requests heavily when we have limited funds.鈥�
Vice Chair of Logistics for the Allocations Committee Stephanie Yau said that requests for honorarium allocations, money typically used to pay special event guests, have also increased in recent years.
鈥淭he allocations committee decided last year to implement an honorarium cap on all student organizations to mitigate the issue,鈥� Yau said. 鈥淗owever, this issue seems to persist.鈥�
Six weeks into the fall 2024 semester, Mayer expressed concerns about the depleting allocations budget. By then, the board had allocated $196,473.44 at public meetings.
鈥�We鈥檙e trying to meet the [allocations] demand, but we鈥檙e already kind of on track to run out of money,鈥� Mayer said at the board鈥檚 Oct. 8 meeting. 鈥淚鈥檝e been speaking to [the] administration about ways to accommodate the sheer number of requests we鈥檙e seeing.鈥�
At the same meeting, board member Andrew Elliott said large requests will be reviewed with 鈥渕ore scrutiny鈥� moving forward.
鈥淲e have $900,000 to give out every year. It sounds like a lot of money, but there are at Pitt,鈥� Elliott said on Oct. 8. 鈥淐ontinuing to fund these large dollar amounts may become more challenging for us specifically because of the quantity of requests we have.鈥�
At the end of the fiscal year, any leftover funds are placed into a reserve fund overseen by the Office of Student Affairs. According to Mayer, SGB recently requested additional funds from this reserve to continue meeting allocation requests for the remainder of the semester, although she said she is unaware of the total amount in the reserve. The reserve fund pays for that support students experiencing emergency financial hardships.
The average amount requested per organization has increased by 82% in the past five years. During the 2019-2020 school year, the average amount per request was $3,896.64, compared to $7,101 for 2024-2025 so far.
In October, Mayer met with the administration to discuss increasing the student activities fee and expanding the allocations budget. Earlier this month, however, she said there is currently 鈥渘o active pursuit鈥� of raising the fee.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still in talk with administration, and we鈥檝e been advocating for these concerns,鈥� Mayer said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in conversations about how we might be able to raise the flat rate of money to a percentage of the activities fund or a different funding source.鈥�
A flat raise would increase the student activities fee by a set dollar amount, while a percentage raise would give the board a higher percentage of the funds without raising the cost for students.
Although Mayer said the board is not currently making efforts to raise the student activities fee during her term, presidential and vice presidential candidates Mercy Akanmu and Evan Levasseur have named it one of their top priorities if they win SGB鈥檚 upcoming election on Mar. 11.
鈥淲e plan on continuing the work of current president Mayer to secure a percentage of the fund, then, we want to advocate for an increase in the student activities fee,鈥� Levasseur said. 鈥淭his will drastically change the landscape of allocations, allowing more students to receive the funding they deserve.鈥�
Last year's SGB election ballot included a to increase the fee by "$20 or less," but it failed, with 47.6% of students voting 鈥淣o.鈥� The Board of Trustees Student Affairs committee voted to in May 2019, which was the most recent raise.聽
According to Zhang, the allocations committee conducted an audit of expenses from the past five years earlier this month to 鈥済et a picture鈥� of how money has been spent in the past.
鈥淭his year, there鈥檚 been a lower approval rate for requests overall,鈥� Zhang said. 鈥淏ut, there are some years that are missing data that we鈥檙e not able to recover due to human error, which we made a note of in our audit.鈥�
The board has approved 92.6% of the requests it has received so far this academic year with or without revisions, the lowest percentage of the past six years.