SGA Treasurer acknowledges difficulties with yearly budget
(from left) Juniors Lauren Bonomo, Pratham Agarwal and Carnell Poindexter debate on how they would operate the budget of Central Michigan University's Student Government Association if elected as Treasurer. They were one of five debates held during the assocations meeting at the Bovee University Center on Monday, March 31, 2025. (CM Life | Blace Carpenter)
The treasurer of the Student Government Association (SGA) at Central Michigan University said SGA faces challenges after multiple discrepancies were discovered in the organization’s yearly operating budget.
Carnell Poindexter III, a senior student at CMU majoring in law and economics, is in charge of the $28,000 budget since taking on his role as treasurer of SGA. As well as the Student Budget Allocation Committee (SBAC), which gives funding to more than 300 registered student organizations (RSOs) on campus.
Acknowledged errors and mix-ups
Over the semester, Poindexter has publicly acknowledged errors he’s made with SGA’s financial records. This includes mistakes in the Excel spreadsheet that incorrectly shifted stipends between executive positions.
Christian Dunn, chief of staff for SGA, said his annual $800 stipend was accidentally assigned to another position.
“I’m Chief of Staff, I get $800 for the year,” Dunn said. “It was copied down, like, everything was moved down to one. So, a different position got my $800. So, they had to move some stuff around.”
The 2025-26 budget for stipends are $100,000.
Delays in funding form and budget release
The SBAC normally releases its funding request form in September, which allows RSOs to request money for travel, events, conferences and equipment. This year, the form was delayed until mid-October.
Poindexter said the delay was due to “a misinterpretation of the bylaws” and an internal position that should have been filled earlier in the semester. He declined to specify which role was in question.
“Just for being courteous of just, like, the situation, I will just say that the delay was due to a misinterpretation of the bylaws and a position that was supposed to be filled,” Poindexter said. “But I can’t really say much more than that."
The general SGA budget for the academic year was also released around a month later than it’s normally released. Poindexter said this is due to several purchases that were not processed correctly, which prevented the budget from being fully finalized.
“There were one or two purchases that weren’t accounted for,” he said. “But everyone is being super consistent now with coming to me and signing things off before they actually purchase it with the card. That was the only issue.”
According to this year’s budget, SGA’s annual operating budget covers stipends, office supplies, event programming, technology, photos and conference/travel expenses.
