Interview with Maryam Laguna, Student Body Treasurer
Following last week’s post on finance, I wanted more insight about the role of treasurer and how student organizations can get on the Student Government budget. To help clear things up, I sat down with the University of Florida’s top-dollar finance expert: Student Body Treasurer Maryam Laguna.
Laguna is no stranger to the purse strings. According to her SG profile, she’s also served as treasurer of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Student Council and the 2007 Hispanic Heritage Month. Additionally, when I sat down to talk with her, she said she was involved with finances for her sorority, Lambda Theta Alpha, and for the Reitz Union Board of Managers.
Alright, enough of the preamble. Listen to the interview below or read the transcript.
I’m Maryam Laguna, and I serve as the Student Body Treasurer here at the University of Florida, and I oversee activity and service fees that students pay. Every student pays about $10.43 for every credit hour that they take, and it comes out to about $13.5 million dollars.
I’ve been involved with various student organizations on campus, and in all of my roles I always gravitated toward the role of being treasurer of these organizations and just how money impacts how organizations can function.
A lot of people ask me oh am I a finance major, but I think that as long as you have someone that is detail-oriented and that’s organized, I think that anyone can really be a treasurer.
The role of the student organizational treasurer, um, I think that they have one of the most important roles because obviously they deal with the money, and the money makes your student organization run in terms of being able to put on events and kind of getting the name of your student organization out there, so I think that the two most important positions of a student organization really are the president and treasurer.
For new student organizations that are looking to raise money, obviously they can fundraise. The basic car washes, the bake sale–I think they work pretty well, as well as Student Government does have a Student Government allocations process where we have money set aside specifically for new student organizations or for new events.
We do set aside a good chunk of money for allocations, and it just depends what student organizations are doing. There isn’t a set dollar amount that every group gets across the board. It just depends on the needs of the student organization.
We just really want to make sure that student organizations are well established, so my one piece of advice for student groups that are looking to get money through Student Government is to go out there and build your membership base and show us that you have a really strong organization that will benefit the student body and that’s probably one of the most important ways for you to be able to get money.
To be able to get on the student government budget cycle, you first have to go through allocations at least once, and then Student Government accepts budgets at the end of November and information on how to get a budget is available on our student government finance Web site. If you are interested in getting on next year’s budget there still is time but before you can get on the budget you have to go through the allocations process first.
If student organizations need more information about finances, obviously they can contact me, the student body treasurer, or they can come up to the third floor of the Reitz and talk to someone in the Center for Student Activities and Involvement.
So there you have it, folks.
This has turned in to an impromptu series on the position of treasurer. In my next post, I’ll finish the series with some tips for using Microsoft Excel so your student organization’s treasurer can get organized!
