Student organizations gain support from alumni after fighting for transparency

OSWEGO, N.Y- General managers of the student-run media organizations WNYO 88.9FM, WTOP-10 TV, and the Oswegonian released a collaborative press statement on their social media platforms expressing concerns over budget cuts and lack of transparency from their ties with Student Association and its budget council. 

Within the press statement the media organizations discussed that this is the first time in the history of SUNY Oswego, that the Student Association and its budget council did not allow students of the media organizations to present their budget proposal. Alongside this issue is the dramatic cuts that have declined throughout the years. 

“We are hoping to achieve clarity and communication, transparency and budgeting, and a good communication stream between clubs and the senator,” WNYO 88.9FM General Manager Jenn Robilotto said. “There has been a consistent decrease of budgeting, not only with media orgs but with clubs, overall which has been traced back to overspending of clubs not overfunding.” 

Media organizations reassured audiences that they wanted to advocate for all organizations on campus and fix the lack of transparency and communication they’ve had with the Student Association. Many members from their organizations have shared on twitter how they have been negatively affected by SA’s budget practices. These actions have brought an outpour of support from university alumni such as Al Roker, Steve Levy, and many more who shared their personal experiences being part of these organizations. 

“I was in shock with the tremendous amount of support we received from social media,” Oswegonian’s Editor-in-chief  Ben Grieco said. “We have Al Roker, who is the one the school emphasizes the most, we have Steve Levy and many other Alumni who have communicated with us and have been so supportive.”

After their post was shared on several social media platforms, this brought a lot of attention towards the issue with over one thousand impressions. After many responses from alumni and students, Student Association shared a response stating that- “these budget cuts have also not been a result of a light decision made by SA’s budget council, SA was in an extremely bad financial situation because of overfunding clubs sndf not having a good process in place to make the correct financial decisions that would allow the future financial stability of SA… .”

“All year we have not had good communication, where we had to go get their budget records from them, they don’t publicly release them like every other SUNY school does,” Ben Grieco said. “Be open with us, tell us what you’re doing and why, we do the same thing for you why can’t you do it for us.”

The next senate meeting will take place on April 29th via zoom. SA plans to present their annual budget proposal, and have their director of finance communicate with organizations about their budget requests and refer back to the senate bylaws if eligible. 

To register for the zoom senate meeting you can sign up at: 

https://oswego-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAqfu-qqTksGNdlat0ZPbwKESLkSAjQfzut