Although Student Union continued to reject appeals last week due to budgetary constraints, an account outside of the group’s general operating budget continues to grow.

A savings account, comprised of funds that were allocated to student groups but were never spent, has accrued to more than $300,000. At the end of each semester, SU re-collects unused funds so they can be used on other programming.

Almost half of the money in this carryforward account is from the past three years alone.

While the money may provide a beneficial safety net, its growth is beginning to hurt student groups struggling to get funding they actually need to operate, said senior Cody Katz, vice president of finance for SU.

“This money isn’t being spent when other groups can use it,” Katz said. “One thing is just looking closely at who these groups are who aren’t spending all their money…is it a fluke or is it happening again?”

Katz said that part of his job as vice president of finance involves examining the groups who fail to allocate large portions of their budgets.

Among the major offenders from 2010 to 2011 were Sports Club Board, ArtSci Council and Architecture School Council. Those three allocations alone racked up nearly $40,000 in unused spending.

Katz said that he hopes to drain the carryforward account by up to $60,000 this year to put the savings account back on track. As vice president of finance, he’s responsible for deciding how to allocate the money—though his decision is subject to Treasury’s approval.

He said he plans to wait until the end of the semester to decide how to spend the excess funds—whether to transfer them into Treasury’s appeals account, offer student groups increased budgets or personally plan an event to see the money put to use.

This year, some carryforward funding was used to fund student use of the Athletic Complex’s McWilliams Fitness Center. In past years, the money had been used to sponsor programs such as Sleeve A Message beverage sleeve advertising, purchasing new computers for student groups and increasing student group budgets.

“Right now I want to wait and see where Treasury is at the end of the semester,” Katz said. “I have no specific plans right now; if something comes along that we could use it for, that’s something to look into.”

Student group leaders voiced discontent that their speaker appeals were rejected to save money when there are additional funds available.

“Because the quality of the speakers presented was so high, I would hope that if SU had enough money in their carry forward to bring another speaker to campus, they would,” senior Harish Chamarthy, co-president of Ashoka, said. “Had they had more money, I think they would have been more receptive to funding our speakers and other speakers.”

Ashoka’s appeal for $50,000 to bring Dr. Sanjay Gupta to campus was rejected at Treasury’s meeting last Tuesday.

Katz acknowledged that while including carryforward in the speaker appeal process may have had some impact, he disagreed with the notion that it would have made a significant difference.

“I don’t think Treasury kept in mind—oh, we could have more money. I think they were fueled by their passion to bring certain speakers over other ones,” Katz said. “I think the Treasury body for the most part didn’t have any specific numbers in mind.”

Speaker of the Treasury, junior Julian Nicks spoke in favor of Katz’s choice not to give Treasury carryforward funding before speaker appeals. This way, he said, carryforward may act as a safety net in case Treasury runs out of money—not just be spent on another speaker.

“I personally value the fact that carryforward was not put into the account before [funding the] SU speaker series,” Nicks said. “We have received appeals that have almost added up to the amount we have left in our account, so that is something to take note of.”

Sophomore Sean Janda, co-chair of Treasury’s budget committee, said that the carryforward funding is a huge benefit considering that SU Treasury spent so much of its appeals account on speakers.

“I think the [appeals] account is a little bit below where some people would ideally have it right now,” Janda said. “I think Treasury funded as much as it did in the past few weeks under the impression that it might be getting some of the carryforward account—it would be a strain if it didn’t.”