The Student Senate organization at Baldwin Wallace University has been working on revising the Title V code since the spring semester of 2018.

Title V is a funded grant that assists the organizations at BW. The revisions of Title V were an immediate concern for the Student Senate Council members at BW due to the inequality between the funding of campus organizations. The revisions of this code would consist of a better balance of funding so every organization can grow on campus.

Student Senate President Jonathon Smith has been working first hand in this process, dealing with the indications of the code and is working hard to see unification between all organizations on campus.

“Curricular activities are a vital function,” said Smith. “We want to make sure every organization is getting a fair share.”

The revisions of this code would not only benefit students who are involved in an organization on campus, he said, but it would provide a positive change in the community. It is a way for organizations to grow and create and to continue to spread positive influences and involvement on campus.

The Student Senate Secretary, Klementyna Pozniak, has been working to educate the student body about the changes that are being made.

“Title V, she said “will give us the chance to look at every organization through a different light.”

Pozniak has made efforts to contact and inform the BW community as a whole by using Blackboard. The goal for using blackboard, she said, is to inform the university about these changes, but to also educate everyone about the efforts in developing a voice for these student organizations.

Every year, at the end of March, the senate has to go through a complex process of approving the requested budgets from every organization. Before this meeting takes place, the budgeting chair sends out a form to every organization president and treasurer who are qualified to get funded by the university.

The budget from the university is divided roughly amongst 84 organizations on campus. In order to have a say in the amount of funding your organization gets, a representative would fill the form out stating the amount of money they’d need for their organization and why.

Following this form, the representative would have to come to the budgeting meeting to defend their budget.

Smith has an important outlook on the budgeting meeting and finds it useful for organizations to attend.

“I want students to come to the discussion about these budgeting changes so they can understand the process,” he said.

Each organization will receive money from the university’s total funding amount of $400,962. The money is broken down and distributed based off of the needs of each organization. There is also a different chunk of funding of $9,000 that is given to Student Government to a special account for Student Senate.

Student Senate can use this money to grant conference funding to individual students that are trying to grow in an academic course event.

The process of revising Title V will continue throughout the year and will aim to create more connectedness between all organizations.