IU Student Government Congress passed the 2024-25 Budget Act, approved by Student Body President Cooper Tinsley, June 19. The newly approved budget, which took effect July 1, has allocated $281,059.19 to IUSG for the 2024-25 academic year, according to a June 22 press release.
This budget allocates funding for initiatives such as Safer Sex Express Donations, Crimson Cupboard, EZPZ, the Laptop Loaner Program and the Office of Student Life Emergency Fund, according to the act.
The act states the Safer Sex Express is an initiative that provides students with free safe sex supplies. The Crimson Cupboard Food Pantry is a program located at the Campus View Apartments that offers free healthy food to students struggling with food insecurity. EZPZ is a drop-off STI testing program that screens for chlamydia and gonorrhea and is available to students who are showing no symptoms. The Loaner Laptop program allows students who need access to a laptop due to unforeseen circumstances to borrow one temporarily. The Office of Student Life Emergency Fund provides students with financial and legal aid.
The budget allocated $17,290.58 in discretionary funds for the fall semester and $32,709.42 for the spring semester, Chair of the Committee on Student Rights and Concerns Leo Cavinder wrote in an email to the Indiana Daily Student.
According to the 2024-25 Budget Act, just over $50,000 is allocated toward the IUSG Department of Sexual Violence Prevention. This funding will go toward sexual violence awareness, emergency contraceptives, the Red Zone Initiative, which aims to educate students on sexual consent and sexual assault, and Birdie alarms and other personal safety devices.
“I think there are a lot of great things that are funded in the budget, including the laptop loaner program and sexual violence prevention,” Cavinder said over email. “I hope that we use these funds in a way to create more engagement but also to expand our donations to various initiatives.”
Additionally, the budget will fund various new initiatives including Crimson Closet, the Maker Space and the Textbook and Test Prep Library.
According to the budget, the Crimson Closet initiative will provide students the opportunity to rent professional clothing for professional endeavors, including interviews, presentations and meetings. The Maker Space will be a program that allows student organizations the space and equipment needed to support and run their functions. The Textbook and Test Prep Library will provide students the opportunity to rent out textbooks and test prep books for free through IU.
$10,000 has already been allocated to Crimson Closet and the Maker Space each, and $5,000 has been allocated to the Textbook and Test Prep Library, according to the budget.
Over the course of the year, IUSG executive directors will be able to request funding from the treasury for support with various initiatives aimed at assisting students, including organizing events, setting up informational tables and providing resources for student-run programs, Tinsley said in an email to the IDS.
“We are excited to see the incredible initiatives our directors will develop to best support the student body,” Tinsley said in the email.
IUSG is also pursuing external funding sources to support initiatives such as a comprehensive accessibility review across the campus, investments in student safety and campus infrastructure, Cavinder said over email. Cavinder said in an email he hoped IUSG would continue to fund Birdie alarms for students on campus.
The administration allocated $32,000 to multicultural centers on campus, $2,000 per semester for each center.
During the campaign season, the FUSE administration said that within the first one hundred days in office, they hoped to have formed the Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim (MENAM) Culture Center, according to their Instagram. Additionally, they intended to establish a Multicultural Advocacy Council to advise their administration on matters related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). They also planned to create a fund to protect DEIA-focused programs and scholarships that may be at risk of losing their funding.
The FUSE administration has allocated 5% of the budget, $15,109.19, to resume the stipends for certain roles in IUSG that had been suspended during the IGNITE administration the previous academic year, Cavinder said in the email.
The final budget, as passed, is accessible to students and members of the IU community through the current central congress drive and is listed as CEA 1011 – FINAL.
