Finance and Funding
The OU Student Government Association (SGA) is responsible for allocating over $600,000 in Student Activity Fees each year to Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) at OU. The information below is intended to serve as a guide to the types of funding available for organizations, how funding is allocated, what is considered appropriate and inappropriate uses of funds, how to use SGA funds, etc.
The Office of Student Government and Organizations Services works with OU Shared Business Services Center and OU Financial Services to process all RSO expenditures through on-campus financial accounts after groups have received funding.
CREATE A FUNDING REQUEST
1. Go to the Finance section of the RSOs page inENGAGE.
2. Click on Create Request.
3. Click on Create Budget Request
4. To see if you already have SGA funds, make sure to check the Accounts section your organization's Finance tools in ENGAGE.
5. SGA will only fund items that are allowable purchases, per SGA policy. Click on the button below for appropriate use of SGA funds.
BUDGET APPROVAL PROCESS
After an SGA budget application has been submitted:
1. All applications are seen and evaluated by the SGA Budgetary Committee. This committee is composed of members of the Undergraduate Student Congress (Congress) and Graduate Student Senate (GSS).
2. After each application is evaluated, SGA funding legislation is created and sent to a weekly Congress meeting and also a separate, biweekly GSS meeting for their consideration.
3. Once approved, the legislation is sent to the SGA President for signature approval.
4. After the funding is approved by SGA, the funds are allocated to the Accounts section of the RSO’s ENGAGE page.
*** Please note that the full funding process can take 3-5 weeks.***
- Registered Student Organizations (RSO) will have their on-campus financial account (OU Financial Services Org Number). More information can be found by emailing sbsc@ou.edu.
- Any revenue that RSOs make by selling products (such as event tickets, t-shirts, novelties, etc.) are subject to sales tax with the State of Oklahoma. Advisors and student organization members need to ensure they are complying with state tax laws any time they decide to sell items. Groups may consult advice from accounting professionals for this purpose. More information about State of Oklahoma tax laws may be found here: http://www.oktax.state.ok.us/. OU employees are not trained in tax law and cannot serve as advisors in this capacity.
- One of the primary roles of the RSO Adviser is to help the group with financial decision-making and record-keeping. The adviser should NOT BE the primary sponsor of any financial account off campus but should still be actively involved with any financial decisions of the group and account reconciliations in order to make sure that the groups is remaining financially responsible.
- The university has a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), as well as an approved campus standard that all university entities must adhere to when depositing funds into university accounts. As RSOs are not entities of the University of Oklahoma, RSO Advisers and officers undertaking this responsibility will be held accountable for any security breach.
RSOs student leaders may opt to set up organizational accounts at local banking institutions. RSO advisers should NOT be set up as approvers or signatory authorities on any outside bank accounts with any outside accounts. However, it would be permissible to give the adviser financial recordkeeping oversight in order to ensure proper financial records are kept and any necessary taxes are filed.
To set up a local bank account, a registered student organization will be required by the bank to obtain a Federal Employer ID Number (FEIN). This number is obtained directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by completing the SS-4 form which is available on the IRS Web site at http://www.irs.gov. This form should be completed by a student leader, not the RSO adviser.
Obtaining a FEIN number does not give an organization tax exempt status. Becoming tax exempt is a very involved process that may or may not be beneficial for a registered student organization. If it is desired, the student organization will need to obtain the services of an outside lawyer and accountant. Student Affairs does not (and cannot) provide these services for groups. It is imperative that the organization's adviser be highly involved with the registered student organization regarding financial decisions of this nature.
