Today, the candidates respond to the question "Hypothetical question - It is fall of 2010 and the SBA has been confronted with a fiscal crisis. You realize that the SBA cannot possibly fund all of the student organizations who have requested money for their activities. In dealing with your Vice President and the Finance Committee, what would your goals be and how would you deal with the challenge?"

Theresa Bowman - President

Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical question and student requests often exceed the budget the SBA has to give.  I served on the SBA finance committee last year and was a part of difficult budgetary decisions that had to be made.

The short answer:

I would work to ensure that no group is disabled by the budget cuts and that the cut is spread across the board as evenly as possible.  Where choices had to be made about which groups needed to receive more or less of a cut that others, I would consider the extent to which the group has shown an ability in the past to effectively spend the money we give them.  I would also consider whether funding to particular groups has a special impact on student life and/or our school's good standing.

The long answer:

Again, my first goal would be to distribute the cuts as evenly as possible.  Where that is not possible, I would consider the following:

Groups' Previous Spending

The SBA gets funding for student groups from the Student Association (SA) as well as allocations from the Deans.  The SBA finance committee and Vice President give a portion of these funds to each student group, the money each group gets from this is called their "C" fund.  Student groups' "R" fund is comprised of funds that the group has raised itself.  Every year, one factor given weight in determining a group's C fund is whether or not that group has been effective at spending their C funds in years past.  Why?  Because we want to give money to groups that have shown us they will spend the amount we give them.  In a fiscal crisis, this practice becomes especially important.  Where money is tight, we want to make sure that student groups will be spending every cent of what we can give them.  In other words, I would consider positively those groups with a history of spending their entire C fund.

School Community and Student Life

If a fiscal crisis presented a situation where some groups necessarily had to take more of the cut, I would have to prioritize funding to groups that benefited the largest groups of students.  Groups that contribute to the quality of life at school and have frequent events would be considered more favorably.  At the same time, I believe that having a diversity of different groups contributes greatly to our quality of life at GW; I would especially consider the extent to which each group brings something unique to the law school community.

Giri Iyengar - President

The answer isn't substantially different in spirit from the one above. They key would be for the President, the VP of Finance, and the Finance Committee to work with every single student leader to perhaps manage their budgets better and to raise more funds. We would be forced to look at the role each group plays in the school, as a whole. Of course, the SBA does this even now, every year. Higher stakes means more efforts, a more critical approach and perhaps, more back-and-forth with the student groups. That last action is one we have the luxury of minimizing right now. Your scenario would take away that luxury but nothing else in change, in principle.

Rushab Sanghvi - President

The first step in dealing with a financial crisis should always be to look for additional sources of revenue.  In discussions with the EVP and Finance Committee I would try and find ways the SBA could raise additional funds itself and ways that it could assist individual student organizations in raising funds.  If cuts were eventually required, I would base my recommendation on a number of factors.  In addition to the factors listed in the Bylaws for making allocations, I would also take into consideration the effectiveness of organizations in advancing our career development goals and the reputation of the school.  It would also be advisable to consult with the leaders of each individual organization to get a better understanding of what they hope to accomplish and to ask them they ways in which they could minimize their budget request.  In the end, however, if cuts have to be made, they have to be made, and I would work with the EVP and Finance Committee to make the effect of any cuts to the student body as minimal as possible.

Dan Janow - Executive Vice President

As SBA Finance Committee Chairman I had a tremendous amount of exposure to the budget process.  The unfortunate reality is that we face our own form of fiscal crisis every year.  Budget requests always greatly exceed demand and the SBA cannot in fact possibly fund all the requested student organizations who request money for their activities.  Group leaders are merely advocating for their groups as best they can, which is to be expected.  But it is important to determine what a group needs and what a group wants.

Student groups provide a great service to our law school community and they do so in different ways.  Everyone has different feelings about what events are important. My basic approach was to look at the way student groups had spent their money in the past.  Student funds received from the SBA that are not spent by individual groups are reclaimed by the university at large.  Therefore we encourage groups to spend all of the money we give them, and spend it on productive ventures for the law school.  This can be improving our name in the community, providing social activities for students, improving job prospects for students and looking at how different cultural elements impact our view on the law.  Groups that spend money to help the GW Law community receive more funding, groups that do not will be the first to have their budgets cut.  It is important to assign a SBA Finance Committee that is made up of Senators with a variety of interests to ensure everyone's wishes are represented.

One thing I would avoid is drastic cuts in any particular area or for any particular group.  I would rather take a little from several groups that a great chunk from any one or any type of organization. To cut a single group's budget drastically can result in that group being unable to recover and fading out of existence, which would be unfair if there were a budget crisis that was not their fault.

It is also important to note that such cuts should be (and are, provided we know about the crisis far enough in advance) handled by the Senate, rather than the VP of Finance.  The Senate represents the will of the student body whereas the VP of Finance is appointed.  Student representatives should make decisions about what should be cut and what should not, but I would of course guide them in that regard from my experiences this year.

Deep Singh - Executive Vice President

As a current member of the Finance Committee, I can say that the total request from groups far exceeds the amount of money available, so the budgeting process that occurs at the beginning of the year is a difficult one to go through.  My goal is that every group gets funded because every group contributes to the student body, the environment, and the reputation of the Law School.  However, the amount of funding is going to depend on a multitude of factors.

As Executive Vice President, I can sit down with the President and Vice President of Finance to ensure that enough money is set aside from the group allocations for ad hoc requests during the year.   The goal is to maximize the amount that is available during the allocation process from the start so as to encourage them to develop realistic budgets and plans for their year.  Then I can advise the Senate and the Finance Committee about what factors the Executive thinks should be taken into consideration as they determine the group by group allocations.

Some of those factors are the guidelines traditionally used by the committee and shared with treasurers during the meetings, such as group size, realistic attendance projections, limits on food allotment, and the amount of private funds (R funds) raised by the organization.  Additionally, the fact that each group is expected to raise a percentage of their money on their own must be made clear and funding decreased if efforts are not made to comply.  Another factor includes the possibility of the administration as a source of funding.   As a member of the Executive, I can present the funding challenges that the Senate is running into and see what programs the Deans would be willing to fund.  I can also encourage the Gavel Club to do more to help treasurers out with the funding process.  Additionally, as Executive Vice President, I can hold a session where the rest of the Senate can tell the Finance Committee what factors and types of programs it would like to see funded.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Senate, acting as the representatives of the student body, to go through the recommended allocations made by the Finance Committee.  As the Executive Vice President, I can work with the Finance Committee to ensure that their recommendations and reasons are made available to the Senate so that they can properly review and adjust the allocations.