(Image Courtesy of the SGA)
SGA President: Marshall MacDonald
Email: sgapres@umassd.edu
SGA Treasurer: Nicole Kach
Email: sgatreas@umassd.edu
Dear fellow students and Funded Organization leaders,
On September 18th, 2023, the Student Government Association (SGA) approved the Combined Budget
Resolution allocation for the 2023-2024 academic year. SGA is a member and participates in the Student
Fee Allocation Committee (SFAC).
The SFAC is responsible for distributing all collected “Student Activity Fees” ($87.50/semester) amongst
departments within UMass Dartmouth. The fees are traditionally allocated in two percentage based loads:
one load of 70% in early fall semester and a second load of 30% in early spring semester. The SFAC
process began and was completed between April-May 2023. For the 2023-2024 academic year, SGA’s
past administration requested a total of $470,000. This total was from a combined decision of the past
administration and the past Finance Committee, who recommended a total of $390,000 for the budgets of
each Funded Organization that successfully completed a budget hearing and $80,000 towards SGA’s
internal accounts for their own operations.
In total, the first load that SGA received was $327,893.00. Given that the amount received from the first
load was significantly lower than the requested amount, cuts to both qualifying Funded Organizations’
2023-2024 budget recommendations and the SGA’s internal accounts had to be made to ensure that:
1) funded Organizations that attended a 2023-2024 budget hearing receive a majority of their
budgets on time, and
2) SGA has enough funding to be able to operate during the 2023-2024 academic year.
To properly fund organizations while allowing for SGA to have funds to operate on for the year, a
combined decision of the SGA President and Treasurer along with the Executive Board, made the difficult
decision to cut the Funded Organizations’ 2023-2024 recommended budgets by 23%. We understand how
extremely frustrating this decision is. We know how much time, planning, and effort goes into running an organization and that this is extremely upsetting to hear. As members of various organizations on campus, we understand the impact that this decision has from the inside out.
As a whole, SGA intends to prioritize transparency and honesty on all fronts, especially when discussing
finances because we all pay the Student Activity Fee. To demonstrate that all organizations were treated
equally and none were prioritized, a comprehensive spreadsheet with the budget hearing
recommendations, detailed information regarding our account balances and the money going into them,
along with the changed recommendation based on first load of funding that we received is available on
the homepage of our website (umassdsga.org), or upon request via email.
If we receive the second load of funding as we near the Spring semester and it is greater than the cuts we
had to make, our anticipated goal is to fund organizations the original recommended amount in their
Spring 2023 budget hearings to the best of our ability. We will continue to remain transparent with our
funding and will provide updates as soon as they come regarding the second load. As students, you
deserve to understand how your finances are allocated and the reasoning behind our decision-making.
Official Funding Statement Letter