Student Union Treasury is considering changing the funding structure for student groups, it announced over winter break.

The proposed funding category would allocate a fixed dollar amount to Category II student groups instead of going through the formal budget process. If implemented, Category II student groups would have the option to opt into this new category and budget process.

A survey is open to student groups to gauge interest. Vice President of Finance junior Shelly Gupta wanted to emphasize that this proposal is only being considered. She says they are still looking into the feedback from the survey and the average amount groups that gave feedback received in their budgets.

“We’re not going to make any changes that groups don’t want us to…if a group doesn’t want to move down they can stay in Category II or Category III and continue operating with their budgets,” Gupta said. “But if they want a flat amount, they can move into a new category.”

Currently, SU-recognized student organizations are funded in three categories. Category III groups do not submit budgets but instead are allocated $75 each semester. Category II student groups must submit budgets that are capped at $500 of funding per semester. Category I groups also must submit a budget and can request an unlimited amount of funds.

Speaker of the Treasury junior Agneesh Dasgupta said that Treasury considered making a change after observing that Category II groups with smaller budgets receive the same level of scrutiny of groups that submit relatively larger budgets.

“We just observe that groups that are currently Category II and submit budgets of, let’s say, like $200 a semester…we give them the same scrutiny as groups that submit budget [of] about $20,000 a semester,” Dasgupta said. “So, recognizing that groups serve different niches on campus and [for] those smaller groups, we want to basically give them more flexibility to program and hopefully by giving them the flexibility, they would be able to serve that niche better on campus.”

Gupta estimates that if enough groups express interest, the new category would likely be created for their next fiscal year over the summer.

“Something that I want to make sure we hold to is that…we don’t tell a group to do something, we let them opt into doing that thing,” Gupta said. “So, I think at least in the transition year, whenever that year is, it would be like, ‘This is an option for you if you want to try this new structure. If you don’t, stay where you are and have everything be the same.’ I think if we do that…not that [it] doesn’t matter what changes we make, but the groups that want to be impacted by it will be impacted by it. And if you don’t, you can stay with the current system.”

Dasgupta said that if the proposed category is created, he hopes student groups of all sizes will be able to program to their needs.

“Sometimes [Category II] groups that want to hold programming during the semester, but they’re either too small or…they want to hold programming that they aren’t able to plan a semester in advance like larger groups on campus,” Dasgupta said. “So, ideally, this would give them the flexibility to be able to hold programming without having to plan a semester in advance.”