Funding System Overview

  • Roles and Responsibilities

    Student organization funding at UBalt is through student agency fees, collected by the university on behalf of Student Government Association (SGA) and Student Bar Association (SBA). Fee funds are distributed amongst undergraduate and graduate organizations by the Student Government Association Finanance Committee (SGAFC). Fees collected on behalf of SBA are managed by a separate office and policy. In addition to distribution of funds, SGAFC will regularly review policy related to use of fee funds.

    Student Government Association Finance Committee
    Members of the SGA senate, the SGA treasurer, a financial advisor from Student Success and Support Services, and the CSEI Graduate Assistant for Financial Operations (for record-keeping purposes only) sit on this committee to distribute funds to undergraduate and graduate student organizations. More information about SGA and becoming an elected member can be found here.

    Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion

    The Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion (CSEI) is responsible for the general oversight of student organization financials. CSEI acts as a liaison between student organizations and other areas of the University (such as procurement and accounts payable) to ensure proper processing of financial transactions through the state’s payment system. Additionally, CSEI assists organizations in identifying and working with vendors, as necessary.

    The financial partnership between CSEI and student organization leaders relies on each party meeting its responsibilities. A non-exhaustive list of responsibilities is below.

    Role of CSEI:

    • Provide training to organization officers
    • Enforce financial policies consistently
    • Process transactions along published timelines
    • Maintain financial data (such as budgets, finalized amounts and internal transactions) in Campus Groups
    • Work with other campus offices on behalf of organizations
    • Advise SGAFC
    • Communicate with group leaders and advisors about deadlines, trainings, and issues that arise
    • Ensure transparency of funding use and appropriate use of funds.

    Role of Student Org. Officers
    • Attend trainings and work to understand materials.
    • Adhere to financial policies
    • Enter payment requests into Campus Groups promptly and along published timelines
    • Keep officer and membership information up to date on Campus Groups
    • Read and respond to communications from CSEI
    • Use funds in an appropriate and transparent manner.
  • General Policies

    • No organization may conduct activities or events in which the purpose, result, or benefit is financial or material gain for individual members of the organization.
    • Because the operation of student organizations is funded by the fees paid by University of Baltimore students, no fundraising for political candidates is allowed. You may hold an event or debate, but no money can be raised in support of any political candidate – this includes candidates for a student organization or the Student Government Association.
    • Executive, management or organizational positions of authority shall be currently enrolled students only.
     

    CSEI reserves the right to deny payment requests based on the following criteria:

    • Requests submitted incomplete/late (less than 6 weeks prior to expected payment date)
    • Requests that violate any CSEI, UBalt, or State of MD policy
    • Requests that, due to their nature or complexity, are unable to be processed due to current staffing levels
     

    Official Communication Channels

    CSEI will use the ubalt.edu email addresses of the president and/or treasurer (as listed in Campus Groups) as the official communication channel regarding financials. CSEI staff members may also communicate regarding payment requests in Campus Groups by commenting on the request itself. In these instances, the requestor will be notified in Campus Groups and via email, which is the ubalt.edu email by default. Student leaders are encouraged to check their ubalt.edu email account regularly and not rely upon email forwarding to another account.


     
  • Policy for Block-funded Organizations

    The Rosenberg Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion, as a steward of agency funds for block-funded organizations on campus, establishes the following funding policy for the disbursement of initial allocations to the Student Government Association and Student Events Board.

    1. The Student Government Association will be provided a budget worth 22% of the overall student agency fee budget or $55,000, whichever of the two is greater.

    2. The Student Events Board will be provided a budget worth 22% of the overall student agency fee budget or $50,000, whichever of the two is greater.

    3. If SGA, and SEB are funded based on their minimum percentages, SGA Admin will be provided a budget worth 17% of the overall student agency fee budget. If SGA and SEB are funded based on their minimum values, SGA Admin will be provided a budget minimum of $35,000 after SGA and SEB have been funded.

    4. The remaining funds will be allocated to the SGA Finance Committee for disbursement to student organizations.

    5. Any funds from the student agency fee budget that remain unallocated at the end of the block funding allocation process will be automatically granted to the SGA Finance Committee for supplemental funding to student organizations.

    • After all student organizations have had an opportunity to request supplemental funds, SGA and SEB may request supplemental funds.
      • SEB supplemental funding requests will be presented to the SGA Finance Committee
      • SGA supplemental funding requests will be presented to the Senate as a Finance Bill and will require passage according to Senate guidelines.
     

    Questions about this policy may be addressed to the Director of Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion. These levels may be revised prior to July 1 for the following academic year, with appropriate and timely notification to those groups who are impacted