Wonder where your student activities fee is going?

This semester, the student activities fee was $142.50 and 1,475 students paid the fee. “This money gets allocated to the permanent organizations,” explained Daniel Burden ‘23, SGA treasurer. “A permanent organization is a club or organization that is integral to the successful operation of the College and is likely maintained by a Muhlenberg College department or office.” These permanent organizations (EMS, the Yearbook Club, the Multicultural Council, Hillel, Muhlenberg Activities Council, the Senior Class Council, SGA Internal Fund, SGA General Fund and The Muhlenberg Weekly) receive a budgeted amount from the student activity fee each year to ensure they are able to serve their function on campus. 

Dean of Students receives $73,750.00

The SGA General Fund is available to all clubs and organizations on campus. They can access this fund by filling out a SCORE form and requesting a certain amount of money for a particular project. Burden indicated that about 60% of the general fund has been spent and SGA should be able to fund almost every request for the rest of the semester. He shared that all $5,600 of the SGA internal fund was spent on a free mask giveaway being held on April 23 as part of the “How Many Clicks” tabling event for SGA. 

Whatever money is left over is placed in a reserve account that is used if SGA overspends their budget for the semester or would like to support larger campus projects.

“We have just over $10,000 [in the reserve account] and it is a goal of mine for next year to hopefully get this money to go towards something extremely beneficial for all Muhlenberg students,” said Burden. 

An idea that was frequently mentioned in conversations with students is free laundry/laundry services. “If I had to choose a large project to fund that would be beneficial to the entire campus, it would be a free laundry service for some of the dorms,” said Gavin Baker ‘23. 

Baker lives in Benfer Hall and says that he has trouble doing his laundry due to the limited number of machines. “The price of laundry also creates issues among students as they are paying $1.50 each time they wash or dry a load of clothes. Machines aren’t the largest either, which forces students to do multiple loads of laundry, thus making it more expensive,” Baker said. 

Baker isn’t the only person to mention issues with laundry as well. Zaire Carter ‘22, newly-elected student body president and current SGA Diversity and Inclusion representative, spoke about the issues around laundry on campus during the presidential debate held on April 14. Carter highlighted the financial disparity amongst students on campus during the debate, saying students have come up to him asking, “‘When can SGA get me free laundry?’ Folks want free laundry! So that’s item number one on my list,” states Carter. 

Free laundry isn’t the only issue important to students. Joshua Fogg ‘22 suggested that SGA hosts a week-long event that would bring awareness to issues of social injustice by inviting people to speak to students about issues regarding social injustice amongst various groups. 

“I think it would not only inform people of the systemic issues we face daily, but it would also create an opportunity for students to start a dialogue about some of the racial injustices experienced on campus,” Fogg said. “A women’s rights representative could show up one day, someone involved in Black Lives Matter could be a guest speaker; we could have an Asian rights activist come speak to students… I think it’d be a good idea to start a conversation about these issues that impact our society.”