As the year progresses, Saint Louis University’s Residence Hall Association continues to make plans for various activities and programs on campus. For this academic year RHA has restructured the association’s budget.

“Traditionally, RHA’s budget has been funded by the various fundraising activities we do on campus such as the MicroFridge rentals,” says Mary Elizabeth Curtice, president of RHA. “However, this year we actually have three separate budgets which enables us to do more for residents.”

In addition to the budget derived from fundraising, Student Development allocated $60,000 to be split into two different sub-categories. RHA will use half of this money for social activities in the residence halls while the other half will be delegated to educational issues. RHA and the Great Issues Committee share this portion of the budget in order to bring important speakers to campus throughout the year. The final portion of RHA’s budget comes from rollovers of all the residence halls’ budgets from the preceding year.

“Typically, the councils of the larger residence halls do not use all of the allotted money so RHA passed legislature where all budget rollovers go into an Intracouncil Fund,” said Curtice. “This way the money can be distributed fairly.”

This fund, which is approximately $70,000, is accessible to all residence halls. RHA oversees the funds, but developed a board composed of the president or a designee from each hall council who must approve all petitions for funding requests. The board serves as a checks and balance system for the fund, which serves to benefit everyone.

For example, RHA recently donated $500 to the Panhellenic Council to sponsor one of their upcoming activities. Additionally, this semester RHA, the Great Issues Committee and the Black Student Alliance plan to sponsor a “Managing Your Life” series that will feature a speaker each month who will focus on various aspects of a student’s life.RHA also plans to establish a Web site for the Billiken Blockbuster Channel.

“We are really excited about taking a more active and prominent role on campus this year. We know students will enjoy all the social activities and events we have planned in the upcoming months,” Curtice added.