Semester budgets

ELIGIBILITY

Semester budgets are only available to chartered organizations which excludes those with temporary charters or inactive organizations.

SUBMISSION

Budgets are submitted to the Finance Chair, Dedeepya Chinnam, at studentsenate@smu.edu, by the due date and time. Make sure your requests are in line with the Senate Finance Committee Standards.

THE PROCESS

The Committee amends and approves semester budgets. The Finance Chair may write notes to explain why the line item was rejected, urge the organization to come to weekly with more information, etc. All semester budgets are presented to Student Senate during Chamber for approval.

Fall 2023 Semester Budgets can be found here!

RULES FOR SEMESTER BUDGETS

All of the instructions for the semester budget are provided on the template. Be sure to completely follow all the instructions and rules. The following are strict rules that must be followed in order for Finance Committee to consider your organization’s semester budget:

  1. You must use the template provided by the Finance Chair. You cannot use a template from a previous semester. If you do not use the template provided, your semester budget will not be considered.

  2. You cannot change the cell references. Simply fill out the excel spreadsheet. We recommend you do not copy and paste from past budgets because that can mess up the cell references. If you change the cell references, your semester budget will not be considered.

  3. You must name the semester budget correctly. For example, imagine that Student Senate is turning in a semester budget for approval. “Student Senate” would be the name of the semester budget. Do not shorten the name or use an acronym. You will be penalized if the semester budget is not named correctly.

  4. You must provide attendance numbers for proposed events. Without the attendance number, we cannot approve line items or money requested for the event.

TIPS FOR SEMESTER BUDGETS

  1. Clearly label “General Body Meeting Food” on the semester budget if you are asking for food for meetings. We recommend having it on the miscellaneous tab.

  2. Be as specific as possible in the line items. Finance Committee is able to understand the event better with your line item description.

  3. Fill out the event description at the bottom of the “Event” sheet. Talk about the background, traditions, programming, planning, or anything else that is important.