On the 19th of February (Sunday) – one day before the start of orientation week, the MUSA President, Janesh Nathan called for an emergency MUSA meeting to brief everyone on the different budgets allocated for each department. However, prior to the discussion of the main topic, Janesh did raise his concerns in regards to the issuing of the Monash University certificates and MUSA certificates. Among the things, he mentioned included the fact that the Orientation Week buddies will not be receiving a certificate from Monash University, an issue that was disputed over by a number of MUSA committee members where one of them stated that it was unfair since the Buddies were contributing their efforts in serving the university despite not being a part of MUSA. Janesh also suggested that in the future orientation weeks, only existing Buddies and subcommittees will be requested to help out. This again raised a few concerns with one highlight that this would deny students the opportunity to be Buddies in the upcoming semesters. Janesh said that more discussion would have be held in the near future to deliberate on how to get around this matter.

The Treasurers then took over the spotlight to present the budgets for every department. A few criteria were stated as below before the budget presentation was done:

1) Budget proposal for every event (as requested by Student Services) should be 3 weeks prior to event date.

2) All spending must be justified to minimize overspending; and if overspending occurs, there will be reallocation of budget and cutting down of budget from other events,

3) Reasons must be provided and approved by Treasurers before confirmation of suppliers, etc.

Disclaimer: All amounts provided in this article are expected amounts and are not fixed.

The total budget provided for MUSA 2017 is RM1.35million. The Treasurers first presented the President’s budget, which included the allocation of money for the production of business cards & MUSA t-shirts, the Monash University Volunteer Programme (MUVP), The Alliance project and the presidential trip among others and it was totalled at RM70,000. Next it was the Vice President’s department which was expected to make a revenue of RM65,000 from merchandise sales and a total of RM211, 226 for expenses which includes subsidies, student initiatives and the EAC. Moving along to the General Secretary’s budget, a total amount of RM 15, 000 was allocated for MSC meetings refreshments, MUSA & MUISS general elections, by-election, printing of MUSA certificates, 2 sets of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) booklets, and the Media Administrative Committee Meeting. The Treasurers then took the floor to present their own budget of RM101,000 which covered for receipts books, sub-committee appreciation dinners, and all the departments’ budgets under Johor Clinical School (RM95,000).

For the Activities department, a budget of RM245k was given for events such as Orientation Bash, Annual Ball, Amazing Race, and minor events like the theme week which were to be held in Week 5 and a planned event named the Flash Friends (sort of like speed dating), an event that was planned based on the demands that we have all seen on the university’s confession page. Also, an amount of RM94,300 for expenses and expected revenue of RM31,200 were placed under the Welfare department’s budget which included events like the Pool and Foosball tournaments, the Mental Health Awareness Week, inter-MUSA War, purchase of new lounge equipment (i.e. PS4, bean bags), maintenance and purchases of Monash gym equipment. The Wom*n’s Officers received a budget close to RM 15,000 which was expected to be used for events such as the International Women’s Day, Anti-harassment Week, Sadie Hawkins Dance, student initiated events, Women’s Week and the Breast Cancer Awareness Week. The Publicity department is expected to make a revenue of about RM6,000 from T-shirt sales and RM30,000 in expenses for Mingle Night, Destress Night, Facebook & Instagram promo advertisements & donut giveaways, among others.

Meanwhile, the Editors received a RM38,000 budget for the printing of MONGA, the maintenance of the MUSA Monga WordPress website, the production of Orientation Booklets and the monthly thematic competitions (please join to win something :D). The Clubs and Societies division who is mainly in charge of all the clubs & societies and the Monash Cup received a total budget of RM270,000 while MUISS, a division under MUSA was allocated a budget of RM218,000 where it would be used for events like Holi Festival, KL Tours, Monash Cultural Night & Carnival, Open Mic Night, Sports competition and the production of the MIMA magazines.

For the School of Arts and Social Sciences, their RM5,300 budget included movie nights, school merchandises, giveaways, and T-Shirt design competition while the School of Business was given a budget of RM7,700 for activities such as movie nights, company trips, a T-Shirt design competition and business speaker’s sessions. The School of Engineering with a budget close to RM 14,000 planned events like MetalTech, Itex, movie nights, T-Shirt design competition and for the production of wristbands for Buddy-Buddee Night. For the School of IT, there will be movie nights, tech talk, T-Shirt design competition and League of Legends Tournament, all under a budget of approximately RM6,000. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences was given a RM12,900 budget for activities like a charity run, the MedBall, company visit and sweets and tumbler giveaway. Lastly, the School of Pharmacy plans to have a movie night, first-aid course, SOP camp and an inter-university pharmacy event under their RM16,000 budget allocation while the School of Science was given a budget of RM7,900 for their activities which included the Science in Action programme, the Science Field Trip, a T-Shirt competition, movie nights, cooking giveaway, and a bowling session in Sunway Mega Lanes in the near future.

If you would like to know more about the budget, do check out the document attached here.

Words by Tiffany See Pei Er
Photos by Andrew Peter Lim