Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) have experienced delays in ordering items for events, resulting in several events being pushed back. According to student leaders of the International Student Organization (ISO), Rare International Students Everywhere (RISE) and Student Government Association (SGA) treasurer Matthew Kenzinger `27, the delays can be attributed to Kenzinger receiving his SGA credit card late. Each of the RSO’s orders had to go through the Office of Student Involvement instead.
Parikshit Roychowdhury `26, the SGA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chair and a Financial Board member during the 2024-25 academic year, said that the measures that he and other members of SGA worked on last year to make RSO funding run more smoothly, like stocking the cultural closet with event resources, have not been implemented.
Kenzinger said that he and other treasurers were unable to get credit card access until the third week of September because SGA members are not allowed to work until they are on campus. This delays the large amount of training they have to do. He said that he is working to get SGA members on campus early next year.
In addition, SGA decided to increase the amount of time needed before an event to approve one. RSOs must place their orders three weeks before the event, because ordering items from other countries takes a lot of time. This is particularly relevant to groups like ISO and RISE, Kenzinger said.
Aaryan Lodaya `27, ISO president, said that ISO submitted their orders for an event within the required three weeks ahead of the event. A week later, ISO received an email from the Office of Student Involvement stating that there were errors — such as links to items on the spreadsheet not working — with their order and they needed to resubmit. After realizing that nothing would come on time, Lodaya said ISO decided to hold their event a week later than they originally intended.
Additionally, an event held by RISE that was supposed to take place on Sept. 21 was delayed by two weeks due to order delays, despite having submitted the budget three weeks in advance, according to RISE president Candice Lu `26. Lu said that when she went to check on the items the club had ordered for the event the Thursday prior and found that nothing had arrived, she talked to Nancy Guinane, program coordinator for the Office of Student Involvement, who confirmed that nothing had been ordered yet.
According to Lu, even though RISE’s budget had been approved for the event, the order had not been processed because there was no budget sheet attached to the email from SGA requesting the order. However, Lu said that there had been no follow up to request the budget sheet, which Roychowdhury said was a common occurrence last year. Kenzinger said that at the time, he was not aware funding requests had to be attached via email, and that funding requests are submitted through a form that both SGA and the Office of Student Involvement have access to.
Maure Smith-Benanti, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and Dean of Inclusive Initiatives, wrote in an email to The S&B that the delays were due to both the volume of item orders being put in at the time, as well as items requested from other countries.
Other members of the RISE cabinet spoke with the Office of Student Involvement, where it was suggested that they take a college car and drive to get their items so the event could take place on time, however none of the members were available and most do not have a driver’s license. The Office of Student Involvement did order the items after discussion with RISE the Thursday before the event was supposed to take place, and the event took place two weeks late.
Roychowdhury also mentioned that delays could be happening because although he and other members of SGA submitted a lot of orders to stock the cultural closet for RSOs and Multicultural Organizations (MLCs), most things were never ordered. This would ensure that RSOs and MLCs would not have to order items like chafing dishes and basic cooking items before every event. He also said that he believes there are issues because at the moment, there is not an SGA financial advisory board. Kenzinger said that a financial advisory board is currently being developed, as SGA was waiting for a DEI chair to be hired, which happened the week of Oct. 12. SGA is currently searching for board members.
Kenzinger said that now that SGA has access to their credit card, ordering runs much smoother, and he believes that if SGA can get on campus earlier next year the process will run much better.
Smith-Benanti wrote that Student Involvement will continue to assist SGA with purchasing. “A few examples of the ways Student Involvement assists SGA and student organizations is by checking out credit cards for in-town purchases, helping students place phone orders at restaurants and managing all the tax-exempt forms for every purchase point, as well as reconciling credit card statements and tracking budgets,” she wrote.
Maure Smith-Benanti is the supervisor of The S&B. Smith-Benanti is not involved in the writing or editing of any articles of The S&B.
