To fall in line with its new budget, the student government had to cut funds from professional services, non-employee travel, wearing apparel and other commodities.

Student government also cut $600 from student payroll, which was $400 from the secretary positions and $100 from both the Webmaster and graphic design positions on student government.

The student government association’s proposed budget was originally $42,035, and after the April 2 Apportionment Board meeting, the allotted budget for student government decreased to $38,200, which was $3,835 less than the original proposal.

Shirmeen Ahmad, the student vice president for academic affairs, said the executive board decided on what to cut from the budget based on how much money is used in each area.

“We just really looked at the areas where we had known that we would have to cut, so we kind of had that planned,” Ahmad said. “For example, for First Night, we knew that we had some extra money in there that didn’t get used, so that was a good place to take out from.”

Ahmad also said the process of deciding what areas to cut among the executive board members was like a negotiation, and the cuts were dependent on which areas used their funds consistently.

“We looked at the budget right now and how much we had left and seeing the different areas, how much actually gets used,” Ahmad said.

She also said in terms of the budget next year, the student government would have to be more careful with its spending.

“It just has to make us more frugal. We would have to make sure to consider when we’re doing events to really find co-sponsors to help us pay for different things, to do different things,” Ahmad said. “It’s just going to be having to make sure we always follow the budget and always know what we have to do with it.”

While there are cuts to some events student government hosts during the year, Ahmad said there have not been any cuts to those events.

“So far we haven’t cut out any events, we just took money away from it, like Panther Service Day and First Night,” Ahmad said. “We’re not cutting them, we’re just making it where they’re only getting less money.”

Ahmad said the co-sponsor for the events are mainly on campus; however, they can also be outside sponsors.

“I know for First Night, sometimes we do get more outside sponsors because they know that First Night is a huge event,” Ahmad said. “Mostly, it’s internally, so (we will) be working with different organizations. For First Night, we would work with athletics a lot; it’s mostly internal, just finding other areas on campus we can work with.”

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