LSO restructured

Instead of all 60 organizations having a representative in the LSO, there will be a Student Organization Budget Board made up of 11 students. Four of the board members will be Student Union senators and the other seven representatives will be chosen from an applicant pool.

Sophomore Andrea Capasso, vice president for student organizations, is responsible for the changes.

She said, “We, the Student Organization Review Board, have chosen to restructure the LSO in order to have a more reliable and efficient allocation system for all student organizations.”

The board feels that in the past, organizations were voting irresponsibly. It is their hope that a smaller group will help focus the requests and better allocate the money.

Capasso presented her newly structured LSO to the current group of LSO representatives. The presentation explained the redefined structure, division of funds, request process, allocation meetings and budgeting limitations.

Anyone can apply to be on the SOBB board. All Student Union members will be selected by Capasso, Student Union President Molly Delaney, SORB Auditor Matt Pinto and Director of Student Activities Lisa Ramsey.

The other seven applicants will go through an interview process. Once selected, all members of the board will receive training. To maintain fairness, if members of the board are also part of other organizations they may not vote if their club is requesting for money.

The group will have $55,000 to divide amongst the groups. Programming will receive $30,000, travel $15,000 and operating and service will both receive $5,000.

Next year budget limitations will include denying money for food, recruitment, alcohol, awards, T-shirts and various other requests not deemed worthy by the board. When the board is out of funds, no money will be transferred to it from the other funds.

“The new budget board system will be more reliable than LSO has been in the past. Students will now have a system that they can rely on for fair results,” said Capasso.