Story by Heather Christian, Adam Correa and Alexis Espinoza
The ASG (Associated Student Government) will not be able to spend a lot of the money given to them by the budget, due to COVID-19.
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SAN MARCOS–The Associated Student Government’s (ASG) mission is to provide the students and the community with the best college experience possible. However, ASG is having difficulties achieving this goal because its budget was impacted by COVID-19.
The ASG’s adopted budget for 2020-2021 is $158,812. It spent about $19,991 this year and was left with about $180,926 leftover.
The ASG’s budget the past four years has gradually been increasing.
At 20 years old, Student Trustee Rachel Alazar, who is serving the ASG for her second year, is brainstorming options for how they should spend the money.
Money from the budget given to the ASG also goes to student-based clubs at Palomar College.
“Our funding is more for student-based events, going on educational trips or planning conferences,” Alazar said.
This year, with the complications of COVID-19, they are not allowed to plan or use the money toward these events.
“We’re trying to establish more of an online presence,” Alazar said when asked what the ASG is planning on spending the money on. With an online presence, they want to hold online contests and events to reach out to more students.
“We aren’t allowed to go on campus until June,” Alazar said in regards to limitations with interacting on campus.
Another limitation that she mentioned was not getting many monetary requests.
“That’s going to be a fact of COVID,” she said.
Alazar said the amount of money given to the ASG was sufficient.
“A lot of it goes into our reserves,” she said. In the reserves they do not touch or move the money anywhere.
Alazar mentioned that the ASG will be participating in a Public Financing Committee over winter and spring. Members will be talking to the Palomar Governing Board about how the budget is going to adapt to COVID-19.
“We can’t just think about this year, we have to think about if we come back for the year following,” Alazar said.
“If you want to know more I always suggest trying to attend committees,” Alazar said, adding that she sees that as helpful for knowing more about the budget.
Carissa Anderson, the VP of Communications for the ASG, mentioned that she had limited information about the budget.
However, Anderson did clarify that there are other ASG members who may have a more vested interest and be better informed to answer questions.
The Telescope has reached out to Remy Arnold, the ASG president, and Cassandra Collier, the VP of Finance, with no response yet.