In the past, the Student Government Association at Western has had money management problems. SGA is aware of that fact and is actively working to budget in the best possible way.

As the Herald reported, SGA is making good progress in achieving our monetary goals. We’ve revamped our operations budget by cutting $7,000. The operations budget for the last three years has not spent near its allotted amount; at the end of the year, leftover money is essentially trapped in that budgeted area.

Where does our new budget place the money? Most of the money cut went into programs such as Org-Aid. In fact, because of the reorganization of money, we’ve been able to increase the funding for many programs.

How does SGA plan to spend $73,000? I understand concern about this issue: $73,000 seems like a lot of money to spend. First and foremost, that number is not the amount of money we have left to spend. Some of the programs only get their money taken out of the budget at the end of the year. One example of this is Provide-A-Ride, the service that gives safe rides to students who have been drinking.

The reality of the issue is that a lot of our programming expenses come at the end of the fall semester and during the spring semester. SGA spends a lot of money both in the fall and spring semesters during finals week to help students at Western.

We pay the library money to extend its hours, which gives students the additional time they need to prepare for crucial exams. We set up refreshment booths in various buildings across campus, sometimes equipped with sweet indulgences, to ease the students’ nerves while taking their tests, and Scantrons for students who don’t have any. SGA plans to continue this tradition, along with others such as Buy-a-Book.

These costs can really add up, so at this time of year SGA needs to make sure it has the proper funds to pay for such expenditures.

How does that differ from previous years? The SGA executive board sat down and admitted that something had to be done about this budget situation. One of the answers was to rebuild programs that truly affected the students, make them bigger and better and more effective.

Our first step was Org-Aid. We raised it by almost $10,000. We also have plans to make a bigger effort to keep students informed about programs being offered. Traditional methods of getting the word out aren’t working. SGA needs to use alternative methods to inform students about programs that directly and indirectly help or affect them.

Take Buy-a-Book, for example: we want to increase the number of book scholarships, but if we don’t inform students that they have this opportunity to apply, then we have wasted our time and money. SGA is aware of this fact and is taking steps to remedy it.

Should the SGA budget be cut? The answer is no. On the other hand, SGA should be held accountable when it does not use the money to help students.

People were right when they called for budgetary reform. But SGA has done just that. We have researched our past spending habits and looked at how to perform better.

Give SGA the chance to work for you. Give it the chance to work well. Then if SGA reverts back to behavior from previous years, call it out. But when SGA is actively trying to change for the better, let it.

Amanda Allen is a senior psychology and political science major from Goodlettsville, Tenn. She is administrative vice president of SGA.

The opinions expressed in this commentary do not reflect the opinions of the Herald or the university.