Although state budget cuts may not affect the Student Programming Association and Student Government Association directly, they could be indirectly affected.

Student fees fund both SPA and SGA. Therefore changes to state funding would not affect these organizations at first, but if enrollment were to drop, both organizations would have to scale down their projects.

Adam Lefort, SGA president, said the SGA serves as the voice of the students.

“When we have less students to serve and less money to spend, it’s harder to do bigger projects,” Lefort said.

Before the student assessed fees Lefort explained that it was difficult to do smaller projects.

“To buy scantrons was hard sometimes, and now we have them available all the time,” Lefort said.

Other larger projects that SGA currently organizes include the Nicholls Awareness Campaign with local businesses, free legal aid, free scantrons year round and free student admission to Swamp Stomp.

During last week’s University Council meeting, Lefort said that everyone had to put together contingency plans, outlining what would happen if the University’s budget were cut 10 to 75 percent of it’s budget.

“At first, it might not make a difference for SGA because we have a budget and we normally don’t spend all of it,” Lefort said, “but when we start losing enrollment, we’re losing students to serve. That’s the big thing.”

“I’m on the UL System Board, and we know how to deal with budget cuts. We’ve been dealing with them for so long, but there’s a point where you can’t cut anymore. You keep cutting until there’s nothing to cut,” Lefort said.

The SGA’s job is to serve as the voice of the students, according to Lefort. He also said they are trying to be proactive without doing anything too early.

“SGA is looking into something like a town hall meeting to hear students’ concerns and figure out exactly what they want and what they think about this,” Lefort said.

According to Lefort, in 2008 the art department went to SGA and together they organized a protest against the first round of budget cuts.

“We’re going to be here. If any students want to do something, we will be here to help plan,” Lefort said. “When the art department did that, we helped them, but it wasn’t SGA doing the protest.”

SPA is the organization that takes students’ ideas and plans events they want to see on campus, according to Taylor Degruise, SPA president.

Degruise explained that student enrollment determines the budget for SPA.

“If education were to get more expensive, it actually might affect our budget by causing less people to be able to afford college,” Degruise said.

SPA hosts many events on campus throughout the year. Some of their most popular events include Crawfish Day, Alive at 5, Mardi Gras and Homecoming Breakfasts and Comedy night.

“Last year, we did the festival of colors event and we’re in the works to try to plan that one again too,” Degruise said. “If the University would decide to cut back on fees, it could affect us.”

She also explained that you do not have to attend executive board meetings to be a part of SPA.

“Technically everybody’s in SPA,” Degruise said. “If you pay your student activities fee, you’re in SPA.”