Reporter Q&A with the president of MSSA on SAC budget

Katie Leibel
Staff Writer

The MSSA’s budget hearing is March 14 and students new to Minnesota State University, Mankato may have questions as to what this process is, how it works and how it can impact the different student organizations and programs on campus. The president of MSSA, Abdulrahmane Abdul-Aziz, was interviewed to inform students about the process. Below is a Q&A  from Abdul-Aziz about the Student Allocations Committee and the MSSA:

1. What is MSSA and SAC?

The Minnesota State Student Association (MSSA) is the voice of the students at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  MSSA is the student government made up of 33 students advocating for positive change for the student body at MNSU, meeting weekly throughout the year.  The student senate provides the following services to students: The Maverick Textbook Reserve Program, free legal advice from the Student Attorney, Grade Appeal Process, Enterprise CarShare service, among many others.

Student Allocations Committee (SAC) is a group of 9 students appointed by the student body president to 1) approve RSO travel and programming requests throughout the academic year and 2) listen to budget presentations, deliberate the amount each student activity department will be allocated from the student activity fee, and present that recommendation to MSSA.

2. How is the senate involved with SAC?

SAC is made up of 9 MNSU students; 6 are not MSSA senators and 3 are current MSSA senators.  MSSA is not directly involved with the week to week agenda of SAC.

3. Are you able to tell us which departments received the funding they requested and which were recommended to receive cuts? If so, please list this information.

Yes. Please see the FY19 Student Activity Funding Requests – Deliberation Spreadsheet and SAF FY19 Narrative sent to The Reporter Office Manager, Jane [Tastad], and the Editor-in-Chief Gabe Hewitt.  [see page 5]

4. What happens with these recommendations and how is the senate involved?

After SAC approves the Student Activity Fee recommendation, MSSA discusses that recommendation and revises it as they wish. On March 14th, MSSA meets to discuss the SAC Budget recommendation.

5. How do students get into SAC and MSSA?

The only way students get involved with SAC is by being appointed by the MSSA Student Body President.  There are several ways students can get involved with MSSA, including but not limited to: running in a vacancy election, running to be elected to the student senate in the upcoming general election (on April 10th), or by becoming involved as a committee member on the numerous student or university committees.

6. What else does SAC and MSSA do throughout the year besides these recommendations?

See answer to Question 1.

7. Tell the readers about the hearings you and SAC held and what all SAC does.

See answer to Question 2.

8. The senate has to discuss these budgets for several hours. Can you talk about how it all works and what happens with the budgets once they’re voted on?

On March 14th, MSSA will discuss the SAC recommended SAF FY19 budget for several hours.  After they approve an agreed upon budget, the SAF FY19 budget then goes onto Vice President David Jones and University President Richard Davenport for approval.

For more information about MSSA and SAC, students are encouraged to check out the FY19 Student Activity Funding Requests – Deliberation Spreadsheet and SAF FY19 Narrative available on The Reporter’s website and on PAGE 5 of this issue. Students may also go online to the MSSA website to learn more about past budgets and the tools MSSA provides. The budget hearing meeting for 2019 will be held March 14. The meeting starts at 3 p.m. and continues for the rest of that day until all budgets and appeals have been voted on. Students are welcome to attend. The meeting will be held in the Centennial Student Union in Room 245.