Student government is proposing to cut $1,200 from its budget next year because of Eastern’s decreased enrollment.

The current student government budget is $43,735, and student body president Reginald Thedford said he is requesting $42,535 for next year.

Thedford also mentioned a cut to student payroll. The requested change was for $1,800, which would be a $200 decrease from the current payroll.

Thedford presented the budget during Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting.

Thedford said also proposed these cuts during the Apportionment Board last week.

“It’s just to kind of breakdown how our budget is, where we are putting most of the money,” Thedford said. “(The Apportionment Board) will make a decision on whether they’ll allocate us all of the money we request, or they will request that we revise our budget and cut from certain areas.”

Thedford said if the board rejects his proposal, then student government would have to look at its budget again, make the necessary changes and present the new proposal to the Apportionment Board.

The reason for the budget cuts is because of Eastern’s declining enrollment and because student government’s budget is based on student fees.

“We get most of our money from student fees,” Thedford said. “If enrollment goes down, we don’t make up that money in student fees because there are not too many students who are paying those fees.”

Student government also proposed changes to the non-employee travel, other commodities and the budget for wearing apparel.

Other student government expenses, including professional services, printing and advertising, received no changes.

“Our biggest decrease came from Panther Service Days supplies,” Thedford said. “We took $400 from there, and it was a total of $900 and we redistributed that to a different portion of the budget.”

Thedford said during Panther Service Day, student government would be doing co-sponsorship with Community Services, so the $900 would not be needed.

One of the expenses for Student Government is First Night, a pep rally held during the first week of the fall semester.

Student Government used $500 to help with the event, half of which went to paying the electricians for the event. The rest of the funds were used to pay for shirts for the event and other miscellaneous expenses.

Thedford also said the packets for the upcoming spring election for executive and senator positions on Student Government are out, and they are available in the Student Activity Center.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].