Butler University’s Student Government Association will vote this afternoon to approve the largest budget in the organization’s history.

More than $748,000 collected from student fees will be allocated to student organizations and programs.

Each year, Butler students pay approximately $288 in student fees. About $180 goes to SGA.

Representatives from Butler’s more than 150 student organizations will vote on how that money will be allocated.

There are six boards that fall under the SGA umbrella—Council on Presidential Affairs, the Finance Executive Board, Public Relations, Operations, R.E.A.C.H. and Program Board.

SGA’s budget covers expenses accrued by each of those boards. It also funds—among other things—class activities, club sports, a presidential initiative, basketball trips and a volunteerism budget.

Assembly will go through the budget line by line to determine the final figure.

The executive board has made suggestions to this year’s budget, which was originally determined over the summer.

This year’s proposed budget increased by more than $45,000 from last year.

Each student is represented by at least one person in the assembly. Residential halls, Greek houses and every university-recognized student organization are required to have at least one representative.

The Collegian will report the final budget after this afternoon’s meeting.

SGA assembly meetings are open to every student. The meeting is today in PB150 at 4:30.

The recent struggle for Student Government Association President-elect Mike Keller to find nominees for the position of vice president of diversity programming has shed some light on the issue of filling SGA vacancies—and how best to push and represent diversity on Butler University’s campus.

SGA usually requires that applicants for vice president of diversity programming have served on R.E.A.C.H. before running for the position, but nobody from R.E.A.C.H. stepped up to run.

Keller then extended the applicant pool to the general campus population. He said that the current four applicants exceeded his expectations and that he expects more.

Perhaps more SGA positions should be opened in a similar fashion, to give those not involved with SGA a better chance to represent the greater student body.

The fact that a position that influences the administration on how to diversify Butler is usually closed off from the general public makes very little sense to me.

I think this open applicant pool for vice president of diversity programming should be a permanent change.

The position ought to be held by a student who is open-minded and driven to educate the Butler community on diverse cultures, ways of life and frames of mind.

Not to say that the people in R.E.A.C.H. do not strive to do these things, but when no one steps up to a leadership position, they show that those who are part of an organization are not always those fit to run it.

Keller said that open applicant pools work better for some positions than others if the applicant has qualifications matching the position.

However, Keller said that some positions like those on the Council on Presidential Affairs, Program Board and Finance Board are areas that require experience in order to effectively lead them.

Butler may not be famous for being an ethnically diverse campus, with a vast majority of the student body being classified as “white non-Hispanic.”

However, there are plenty of students here, both inside and outside of SGA, who are diverse in their ethnicity, in ways of life and in schools of thought.

If an applicant for vice president of diversity programming is white, black or even neon green, it does not matter.  If he or she is open-minded and care about educating the Butler community on diversity, he or she should be able to run.

Photo by Reid Bruner

Already hailed as one of the most attractive campuses in the Midwest, Butler University recently added a garden on campus—four stories above ground.

But, this project’s purpose was not to beautify campus.

Instead, the installation of a green roof on campus is another example of the Butler community trying to make the university more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Student volunteers, faculty and staff helped assemble a green roof last Thursday on top of the old pharmacy building.

Guided by Pat Maloney of Eco-Roofs, a green roof professional, and Rich Michal, project engineer on campus, 650 trays, each weighing 40 pounds, were lifted by a crane to the top of the Pharmacy Building.

The project began in the fall when senior chemistry major Sarah Strobl wanted to do a green roof installation project for her honors thesis.

Though Strobl was not able to do this, she joined the Council on Presidential Affairs and began working in the Green Operations Committee.

After several months of working and talking with Butler staff, engineers and manufacturers, the old pharmacy building was targeted for the installation.

I could not be more excited that this project came to fruition, since I am very passionate about preventing environmental degradation and investing in clean energy.

Indiana is mainly powered by coal, which is a big air pollutant when burned, and the water ways in Indianapolis are also polluted due to an inefficient sewer system.

Installing a green roof is a great project to better the environment.

Strobl said that the biggest benefit of the garden is that it cuts down on heating and cooling costs, since the garden acts as insulation.

Therefore, Butler would not need to increase its electricity usage when heating and cooling the building.

Furthermore, when it rains, the water runoff that would have usually been drained into the river gets soaked up by the vegetation on the roof.

Though it is small, the first green roof on campus will hopefully lead to more installations, ultimately helping Butler have less of a footprint on the environment.

“I would like to see every building on campus with a green roof,” Strobl said.

The campus is filled with buildings that have flat roofs, and installing more green roofs on campus and covering larger areas will keep providing benefits for Butler.

Senior chemistry and biology major Eric Shoemaker was a student volunteer with the installation.

He said the roof project was a phenomenal project and that students need to get involved with these types of undertakings because it is our future we are protecting.

“We are the future voice of this generation after we graduate,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker went on to say that he also wants Butler to become more of a green university than it currently is.

The students, staff and faculty working to make this university sustainable must continue to receive help.

It was great that SGA funded this project and similar projects should continue to be installed in the short term.

Having a line-item every year in the SGA budget for sustainable projects is, in itself, not sustainable.

Along with the green roof, I hope that President Jim Danko signing the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment on April 16 will truly put Butler on the sustainable path the community wants.

The Council on Presidential Affairs had its budget increased this year to about $12,000 from last year’s budget of $9,000.

Mike Tirman, CPA chair, said the council needed the increase in order to effectively sponsor the group’s planned events for this year.

According to the Student Government Association’s website, CPA “works actively and positively toward the betterment of the Butler community by advocating student concerns to the Butler administration.”

Tirman said he lobbied for the increase to achieve this goal.

“Our mission is to make Butler a better place for students and to take concerns from them to make a positive contribution to campus,” Tirman said.

“I advocated [SGA President] Al Carroll for the increases so we could put on more events for students to voice their opinions.”

The money goes toward many events sponsored by CPA, Tirman said. One of the events is the Coffee Chat in Starbucks, where students fill out a card with a suggestion on how to improve campus. Then, the student receives a free tall drink from Starbucks, courtesy of CPA.

Joanie Smith, sophomore elementary education major said she went to many of the Coffee Chats last year.

“I think it is a fun way for students to voice their concerns about campus. And you get free coffee out of it. What’s not to like?”

Funding also goes toward guest speakers and giveaways at CPA events, such as the Green Summit, where a comedian will come to encourage students to be more sustainable.

CPA also pays for catered breakfasts with administrators. These breakfasts serve as a way for CPA members to voice student concerns to Butler officials.

Katie Palmer, CPA academic affairs coordinator, said these meetings make a big impact on Butler.

“These allow us to advocate for students who have a dream or idea and help it become a reality,” Palmer said.

Matt Kasper, CPA chair for the 2010-2011 school year, said in an email to The Collegian he thinks CPA needed more funds to effectively enact their intended events.

“There were activities I was hesitant to fund because I was possibly going over my budget, but we did all the events we planned,” Kasper said.

“In order to improve those events, they would have needed more funds.”

Kasper added that when he was CPA chair, he did go over budget but was able to get funds from other SGA sponsored boards.

“[Tirman] is smart to have lobbied for more funds so he will not have to ask other boards second semester and not compete for funds if SGA funds any NCAA tournament games.”

Tirman said that funding for CPA comes from the money allotted to SGA from the student activity fee in tuition.

Some students said they find the funding excessive.

“What do they even do?”  sophomore Kaitlynn Brooks, chemistry major, said.

“Twelve thousand dollars seems like a lot of money for a group I feel like not a lot of people know about.”

Palmer assures students that the money goes to good use.

“It is students’ money being used to benefit the students,” Palmer said.

“We are students too, so we use our best judgment when it comes to the budget.”

Palmer said she added that more students should tell CPA their suggestions.

“A lot of times college kids complain but do not voice their concerns,” Palmer said.

“Then nothing gets done. But if they voice their concerns to CPA, then something is going to happen.”

Students can email their suggestions for improvements on campus to cpa@butler.edu or visit the Coffee Chats.

In an effort to create awareness about sustainability on campus and within student organizations, Council on Presidential Affairs will host a Green Summit Oct. 7.

The event, which will be held in the Reilly Room, will determine which of the nearly 150 student organizations on campus can be certified as “green organizations.”

“We want to create a more proactive approach to sustainability issues within our student organizations and make a positive impact on how students can be more environmentally aware and concerned,” Mike Tirman, CPA chair, said.

CPA recently added $3,000 to its $9,000 budget to help cover costs of the summit, which will include a green comedian and student workshops, Becky Pokrandt, a green operations committee member, said.

“We’re going to have students try to brainstorm ways to make their organizations more green,” she said. “Hopefully we can come up with some resolutions before the event is over.”

The goal is to come up with initiatives that are both beneficial and tangible on Butler’s campus.

“These proposals should be things students will want to embrace,” Tirman said.

The committee that created this event started as an idea for a campaign last year.

Katie Palmer, academic affairs committee coordinator for CPA, said, “The group is firmly dedicated to taking Butler to the next level [of green development].

“The fact that we are making as big—and maybe an even bigger—impact on other schools and campuses with our efforts is one of the many secondary benefits that come out of doing this.”

Student organizations will also be certified as green organizations if they meet requirements based on paper and energy consumption set forth by SGA.

When green operations committee member Ginnye Cubel read an article in Indianapolis’ NUVO Newsweekly about Phil van Hest, a local comedian who grows his own food and makes some of his own clothing, she pushed to invite him to the event.

She said she hopes that the comedian will attract more students to the event.

“I thought it would be a different mix-up from strictly academic speakers,” Cubel said. “He will be able to incorporate comedy while letting us know what he’s doing in Indianapolis to live a sustainable life.”

At the SGA meeting Sept. 21, Tirman said van Hest would charge the organization about $1,000, which was “more than expected.”

Tirman said he was not certain about the exact cost, but the price is typical for a guest speaker and is within CPA’s budget.

“We’re going to have to pay him, but he’s giving us a discount,” Pokrandt said.

Tirman said Butler sets an example not only for its students but also for the community and campuses across the country.

“We want to be a model—a paradigm for other schools so they can look at us and say, ‘Woah, Butler’s doing a great job. They are actually doing something,’” Tirman said.

Part of the Student Government Association budget is still awaiting approval after assembly members questioned some of its items at Wednesday’s assembly meeting.

Members voted to table the $25,800 miscellaneous expenses section of SGA’s nearly $670,000 proposed budget until today’s meeting.

Senior Anna Roueche, who represents the Council on Presidential Affairs at assembly, first questioned a $2,000 increase to the presidential initiative and then suggested an increase to the volunteerism budget.

Roueche, who ran against current SGA president Al Carroll, said she opposed the increase in the president’s initiative  fund because Carroll didn’t put forth specific plans for the money as past SGA presidents have done.

She also said the diversity programs Carroll said he would cover with the money are already funded by the student affairs budget and the REACH portion of the SGA budget.

“I totally understand diversity programming,” Roueche said, “but it’s a weird way to use student money when there’s already money from students going to that.”

Carroll defended the budget item, saying that he would put the extra funds toward other diversity initiatives and events that may not already receive money.

“It gives me an opportunity to highlight that program,” Carroll said.

Roueche said she wanted to move money into the volunteerism budget to help better fund programs like Bulldogs into the Streets and to finance new service opportunities.

“That office serves students, but it also serves the community,” she said.

Dan Schramm, vice president of the SGA finance board, said that all SGA presidents have an initiative fund. That item, along with the rest of the budget, was formulated by the executive board over the summer.

However, the presented budget can be amended or approved by SGA assembly.

“It’s pretty much completely in their hands,” Schramm said.

After assembly approves the initial budget, boards can then trade money or draw from a $14,656 budget cushion to cover any deficits they may face. Schramm said most boards stay within budget, though there is no set restriction about exceeding the allotted amount.

This spring SGA will work on and approve a budget for next school year instead of waiting until the fall. Schramm said this will involve members more in the process and allow boards to begin planning events earlier.

“We’d know when we meet over the summer what budget we have to operate in,” Schramm said. “It will make things less stressed out later.”

SGA assembly meets today at 4:30 p.m. in PB 156.

Click here for the SGA budget.

For many Butler University students, finding an on-campus job is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

“Jobs fill up very quickly,” Liz Freedman, student employment coordinator, said. “Finding an on-campus job is like finding a real-world job.”

About 1,000 students are working an on-campus job, and as students’ schedules become busier, there is less time for having a job either on or off campus.

“To relieve this stress, we are working with trying to lengthen hours at the HRC and the library to allow for more student workers,” Council on Presidential Affairs member Ashley Torres said.

Freedman said that the number of loans and the lack of having a car on campus are the top reasons that students need on-campus jobs.

Because the demand for jobs is so high, there are students working in every department on campus.

Some supervisors do not post jobs on the Butler Links U To Employers database, so Freedman would like to remind students that the best way to find a job would be through networking.

“Get in touch with staff and faculty and don’t always rely on B.L.U.E.,” she said.

As CPA works on the expansion of student jobs, Freedman said she would be interested in working with them, but she wouldn’t be the deciding factor on the issue.

Torres said CPA is very excited about the new ideas.

“The Council for Presidential Affairs has a lot of great ideas we are working with for Butler students,” Torres said.  “Be prepared for a lot of these to start showing up in the next few weeks.”