UF student senators approved more than $1 million for academic councils and student organizations to use over the 2008-2009 school year during Tuesday's Senate meeting that lasted until midnight.
The senators' decision, which was not made until after press time Tuesday, designates almost $540,000 to the Board of College Councils, the body that oversees funds for academic groups in each college, and almost $585,000 to Student Government-funded student organizations.
The Board of College Council budget changed little since last year, increasing by about $100. However, the student-organization budget is almost $16,000 less than last year's budget of $600,559, said Sen. Jordan Johnson, chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Johnson said the committee decreased funds for the upcoming year because some groups weren't spending all the money they requested.
The funding slash was meant to "cut out some of the fat" that could be used somewhere else, he said.
"If they weren't spending their money last year, we didn't give them everything they asked for this year," Johnson said.
Most groups were not given more funding than last year, but six groups demonstrating greater participation and financial need were given more money.
Dancin' Gators was given more than $5,800 to rent the Phillips Center for performances, and Islam on Campus received almost $20,900 - about $6,500 more than last year - to accommodate growing interest in its Ramadan Fast-A-Thon.
The senators also approved a $100,000 transfer from SG Operations to Recreational Sports to renovate the pavilion at Lake Wauburg.
The Wauburg-project transfer does not come from students' Activity and Service Fees like the rest of the budget, Johnson said, but from a $500,000 loan to the Reitz Union in 2005 to refurnish hotel rooms. The Reitz repays $100,000 each year to SG. SG's budget totals about $13 million.
The rest of the funds go toward other programs, such as Recreational Sports, Accent, Student Government Productions and other SG expenditures.
