SGA to give $100 as start-up funding for new organizations

Nicholls Student Government Association changed its bylaws two weeks ago to offer up to $100 in start-up funding to new organizations within the same semester in which it is formed.

Prior to SGA amending the bylaws, any organization had to be maintained for a semester before it could receive funding from student government.

“I believe this change to the bylaw will benefit many students to come,” Austin Wendt, SGA vice president, said.

A new organization can receive funding from SGA only after meeting certain criteria. The organization requesting funds from SGA must be filed with Student Activities Coordinator, Carly Clark, as a valid student organization.

“As the governing organization on the campus, we need to be there for the students when they form an organization they feel is important,” Wendt said.

SGA also asks the new organization to provide them with a detailed list of where the funds will be allocated and solutions for fundraising in the future.

Wendt said the reason SGA requires details about where the money will go if donated to an organization is “so we can ensure we are not wasting the student’s money or appropriating it wistfully.”

One of the organizations seeking financial aid from SGA is the Baseball Club. Nicholls Baseball Club is a member of the National Club Baseball Association and is specifically intended for students who want to play baseball at the collegiate level but are not on the University team.

Andrew Liang, a sophomore nursing major and president of the Baseball Club, has petitioned SGA for more than the $100 stated in the bylaws and is currently involved in talks with members of SGA to negotiate the actual amount that will be donated to the club.

Liang said the club needs lots of financial aid to help pay for umpires, renting fields for home games and purchasing jerseys. Despite all the other costs Liang said most of the funds they raise or are donated would go to transportation to and from Houston where most of their games are scheduled for their upcoming season.

In addition to requesting funds from SGA, The Baseball club also asked SGA to reach out to faculty because the club is in need of coaches.

“We’ve been told no a lot so we’ve come up with other alternatives for fundraising,” Liang said.

Liang said the club is open to conducting bake sales, a 50/50 raffle if they can get in contact with a partner athletic team and Go Fund me accounts.

“The reason it is important for SGA to support organizations in the beginning instead of a semester after they are formed is because the first couple of months of an organization’s existence are vital to its continuation,” Wendt said.

Wendt said that allowing new organizations a blanket investment of $100 at the beginning will allow them to cover the essential cost of an organization, including office supplies, cards about meetings to get out to new members and food to attract them to meetings.

Wendt also said that over the past year he has seen at least four or five organizations form on campus and now with the change of the bylaw, they will have access to aid from SGA they make a request for it.