Due to last year’s decision by the University to reallocate funds, the Student Government’s two television channels, SGTV and the movie channel, and the Newspaper Readership Program were the first extracurricular programs to be cut. However, through the efforts of the new staff, SGA has gathered funds to continue airing both television channels.

“Based on student feedback, we had to keep SGTV and the movie channel,” said SGA President Joe Breslin. “[The students] just liked it far too much for us to just drop it.”

Breslin, along with the rest of SGA, took it upon themselves to find a way to fund the channels.

They decided that not much could be done in addition to the usual fundraising by SGA in order to enlarge the budget.

Instead, the current, severely limited budget was used to fund the channels; however, this involved finding creative means by SGA Treasurer Nick Weber.

SGA fought to keep the television channels on the air in order to please the student body.

“I would have been upset about [losing] the movie station,” said Ashley Freiberger, a senior now living in Bryn Mawr. “When I lived on campus, I loved being able to sit back and relax; [it was] like having our own HBO for free.”

Patrick O’Brien, a sophomore, recalls the channel playing a prominent role in dorm life during his freshman year. “It was so much easier meeting new people last year in St. Mary’s when you could just turn on the movie channel and [watch] Old School,” he said.

With SGTV and the movie channel using up SGA funds, they have become more actively involved in determining the exact amount of funding needed, as well as the exact uses of these funds by extracurricular groups. Although exact budget figures were not available at press time, several extracurricular groups have already felt the squeeze.

For example, SAMOSA has all of its funds tied up in Diwali, their annual dance festival, so they are having difficulty coming up with needed funds for the annual MSL Food Fest. The group hopes these situations will be relieved in the coming months.

For the time being, there is something positive about the lack of funds, as Breslin notes.

“Sometimes it’s better to unite students together and encourage a creative mindset that seeks solutions, rather than just being able to write a check,” he said.