By: Chloe Smith
Student Association (SA) have finalized their budget for the 2025-2026 school year, reflecting several notable changes to funds. With nearly $400,000 in projected revenue, the budget outlines how student fees and events will invest in campus life.
Compared to the previous year’s Administration revenue of $420,750, this year’s Administration revenue is $379,440, according to a chart from Jaziel Soto, junior accounting major and SA vice president of finance. When adding all other revenue generated, the total revenue for this year amounts to $393,140. The new budget highlights reallocation, particularly in areas such as student clubs and media.
According to John Hargy, senior biophysics major and SA president, the most noticeable change is the doubling of funds for student clubs.
“We have doubled the amount that we are giving to clubs from $15,000 to $30,000,” said Hargy. “We believe clubs are drivers of our campus culture and creating that space for students and a community. This is a reinvestment of SA funds back into our clubs to enable them to do programming, events, field trips [and] bring in speakers. We want to empower clubs to create their spaces.”
Hargy also emphasized that this represents the largest allocation to clubs in SA’s history, describing it as a reinvestment in community life.
Another notable change to the budget involved the loss of Memories, Southern’s student yearbook. For years, Memories carried one of the largest allocations in the SA budget with about $70,000. However, with the lack of an editor, SA chose not to produce a yearbook this year.
According to Soto, some departments will benefit from this change.
“The Memories budget used to be $70,000…and now we just cut it to $36,000,” said Soto. “The money that we have remaining, we’re going to use it to improve some equipment for Strawberry Fest. It helps us a lot to have the money.”
According to the organization’s social media posts, Strawberry Festival is an end-of-year event started in 1979 that showcases photos and videos recapping the school year.
Hargy also shared his perspective on the Memories budget being reallocated, noting that SA’s media teams will benefit.
“Our surplus will enable us to upgrade camera gear for Strawberry Fest and other media projects,” he said. “They’ve been working with older equipment, and this will let them buy new lenses and bodies so they can keep producing high-quality content.”
According to Soto, the Southern Accent will also experience an increase in funds.
“[The Accent budget] was proposed to go down, but they asked us for more money,” he said. “I know they have different projects that they want to do with that money.”
Despite the advantages the change will bring, some students are not fond of the loss of a yearbook. Houston Beckworth, senior biblical studies major and member of the Senate finance committee, voiced his concerns.
“It was a bit disappointing to see that there was no one running Memories this year,” he said. “At the same time, other aspects of SA benefited, which is positive.”
According to Hargy, the decision to not have a yearbook came down to the lack of proper leadership.
“It would be nice to have a yearbook,” said Hargy, “but without qualified leadership, it wasn’t realistic.”
Beckworth also mentioned his concern regarding international scholarships.
“It was frustrating to see that we would not be able to put any money into scholarships, including international scholarships, because of the things happening under the current American presidency,” said Beckworth. “Still, other parts of SA benefited, and the overall budget continues to support student life in important ways.”
Soto noted that some parts of SA underspent last year, which contributed to adjustments this year.
“Administration saw that not all funds were being used, so the budget was cut slightly,” he said. “But most areas stayed the same.”
Jeaneva Bautista, senior accounting major and SA executive vice president, explained that the budget process involved balancing tradition and innovation.
“First, we have to look at what prior years have done and reflect on how they used their budget,” she said. “From that, we get an idea of what we want to do in the future. It’s a lot of moving things around. Whatever the finance VP has given us, we work with, and if we need more, we can collaborate with him to improve it.”
According to Bautista, this collaboration allows SA to adapt its resources to student needs. With an ever-changing budget, both Soto and Hargy expressed the importance of transparency. According to them, SA plans to launch a public website where students can view how every dollar is spent.
“I want 100% transparency,” said Soto. “We are working on a webpage to disclose all of the expenses and show where the money goes. A lot of things in the past were unclear, even for finance officers, but we want to change that. My main goal this year is to use the budget to its best potential and make sure students know how it’s used.”
Hargy shared similar sentiments to Soto’s regarding transparency.
“The budget will be public,” said Hargy. “Any student can look at it and see where their money is going. We are very thoughtful about how we spend, and we want maximum impact, funding projects that reach the most students.”
According to Hargy, Senate has not yet publicly posted the budget online but plans to release more information at a later date.
