The FAMU Board of Trustees held committee meetings on Wednesday prior to Thursday's board meeting.
Photo Submitted by Sa'Vanna D. Smith.
The director of budgets at Florida A&M University, Ronica O. Mathis, gave a presentation during Wednesday’s Board of Trustees committee meetings that involved the term “carry-forward funding.”
The university budgets and allocates funds according to fiscal quarters. If an entity needs more money before the next designated quarter, carry-forward funding comes into play.
Carry-forward funding is money that was unused by an entity in the previous quarter. When the unused money is placed into the carry-forward account, it is labeled as “swept.”
If the money is swept it is allowed to be distributed to other needs outside of what it was originally allocated to.
“Some of the carry-forward funds could possibly be used toward the university’s utility bill,” Mathis said.
While the university has carry-forward funds, the Student Government Association has its own. The SGA’s funds are labeled Annual Student budget fees, or “A&S” for short.
Jabari Knox, chief of staff for SGA’s executive branch, explained that as an example, these fees are used during homecoming.
“For students homecoming is our biggest example of carry-forward,” Knox said.
The budget is broken into three periods: fall, spring and summer. Since fall is first, “The money is pushed forward to help pay for homecoming and that is where carry-forward comes into play,” Knox said.
Student Senator Natalie Antenor, recently elected vice president for the coming school year, said that this year SGA is “allocating approximately $350,000 for homecoming because of the fact that last year $300,000 was allocated and by all means we didn’t have enough money.”
In regard to A&S fees, entities such as Domi Station, located just across the railroad tracks from FAMU, and on-campus organizations are funded from this account.
Any organization on the University’s campus is allowed to go before the student government and ask for funds to be allocated to them.
Jasmine Fowler, an MBA candidate and member of Lovely Lady of TorQue, said she plans on attending the Board of Trustee meetings as well as the SGA meetings, in order to gain a better perspective on how and where her money is used.
A full break down of the Annual Student budget fees can be found on the FAMU SGA website. The budget is categorized by color and departments. Large departments, small departments, and College of Law are some of the categories mentioned on the website.
Large departments include but are not limited to the Campus Recreation Center, homecoming, and joint operations. Small departments covers the Royal Court, Marching “100” band, and The FAMUAN.