With over 60 chartered student organizations, the battle for funding will soon begin.

“We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said Student Government Association President Jay Perry in a recent senate meeting.

Perry explained that with so many chartered student organizations continually improving and seeking higher goals, the money just isn’t going far enough.

This year’s budgeting process will be different from years past, according to SGA Financial Vice President Cory Bailey.

This year, each CSO will be given a Microsoft Excel template to enter their data.

“Every group will use the same form,” Bailey explained.

“The form will itemize everything. It will tell the Finance Committee how much the group wants, what they want and how it is pertinent to their mission.”

In order to explain this process, the Finance Committee has already held two seminars for student groups.

The committee also plans to host two more seminars this semester on Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 for the House of Governors, a group comprised of CSO presidents. During the last week in March, CSOs will begin signing up for the funding process.

“We’ve had pretty good turnout to our seminars,” Bailey said.

The new format should make the Finance Committee’s task much easier.

Bailey also thinks it will be easier on the organizations as they will know exactly what information to include and in what format.

Last year’s SGA budget, funded from the Student Activity Fee, was approximately $347,000. From that amount, $309,415 was distributed to chartered student organizations.