FAQs

The temporary increase in research funding that was in effect this past year was a result of a budget windfall directly caused by student groups hosting less events than originally planned due to the impact of COVID. SCOMSA strives to disburse as close to 100% of our annual budget as possible to maximize our impact on the student body and so was happy to be able to provide more in this category.

Unfortunately (and fortunately!), as things are projected to normalize this upcoming year, we have been forced to revisit our guidelines. Indeed, you may have noticed that SCOMSA will be providing less funding for research this upcoming year than pre-COVID! This is a direct result of three factors:

1. Student groups, SCOMSA’s main financial focus, have requested far more in funding than in previous years and so in order to accommodate these requests, decreases in other funding categories was necessary.
2. Dean Layne’s appointment as Asst. Dean for Research is expected to bring with it new avenues and opportunities for funding. Our hope is that individual labs and PIs will be able to cover more research conference costs, as is typically expected in academia. Student Government funding for conferences is extremely rare nationally, and SCOMSA providing this money is actually an exception and not the rule.
3. SCOMSA’s budget has faced increasing strain as inflation, rising numbers of student groups, and a limited pool of money that has not increased in five years has forced us to be more careful in our expenditures. Indeed, you will notice blanket decreases across all of our funding priorities.

We understand how expensive these conferences can be and that this can be a rather frustrating development. BUSM encourages all students to reach out to their PIs for funding and to apply for grants from external sources as appropriate to offset these costs. Should future opportunities to change our funding limits present themselves, we look forward to revisiting our guidelines.

This is a new, permanent guideline for the 2022-23 year as we work to overcome significant budget constraints brought on by the rising number of student groups and higher than expected semester budget requests. The unfortunate truth is that we are dealing with a zero-sum game where if we give all student groups the maximum amount that they request, we will no longer have enough money to fund our other priorities – Formal, Orientation, research conferences, and more. SCOMSA is also taking a closer look at what we are funding and are hoping to be more responsible in our spending.

Generally, these limits hope to bring all groups onto the same playing field so that one group is not receiving $900 in semester funds while others are getting $75. Historical data is strongly suggestive of the fact that groups who do request a high amount of money don’t tend to spend it down and thus leaves SCOMSA with a large windfall at the end of each semester. This forces us to scramble to find ways to spend this money responsibly, and the limited timeframe often means that we are unable to allocate it in optimal ways. As we are dealing with student activity fees, we hope to avoid this going forward so as to ensure that we are using the money that we all pay into in a careful manner.

By limiting semester budgets and referring more groups to adhoc funding, we can decrease cases where groups plan multiple events in good faith but never get around to hosting them. Groups can continue to apply for extra money if a true need comes up as the semester progresses, and SCOMSA is happy to take a close look at that time at the request. We also hope to be able to push student leaders to be more careful in selecting the foods or items that they are purchasing by dropping the maximum reimbursement amount.

SCOMSA used to provide each group with $200 per semester in food funding ($100 max if only one event with food is funded). Moving forward, this will drop to $150 per semester, or $75 if only one event with food is funded.

The simple reason for this change is that historical records have indicated that there is a lot of waste in this funding category. Groups were purchasing hundreds of dollars in food for events that were sparsely attended, thus denying the opportunity for SCOMSA to provide other student groups with higher funding, more research funding, or more funding for major social events. I’m sure we can all remember a time when a student group posted in a groupchat that there was food in the lobby of the school leftover from an event, or a time when groups had attendees take whole pizza boxes home. This must stop.

By lowering the amount we provide for food, we hope to encourage better stewardship of food funds and to encourage student leaders to seek out more affordable options. SCOMSA is always happy to help explore options for food options if you feel that your group needs assistance.

Continuing in the vein of responsible spending, SCOMSA has added an enforcement mechanism to our longstanding requirement that students seek alternative avenues of funding prior to requesting money from us. This is intended to be a fairly nonintrusive, simple, and quick way to ensure that students have discussed other options (including lab and grant funding) with their PI prior to coming to SCOMSA. A screenshot of an email from your PI, with their email address and email signature visible, indicating that you have discussed funding with them and that they do not have any/enough money to provide is sufficient evidence, and will be required on all research conference funding request forms going forward.

You may refer your PI to SCOMSA’s Executive Board should they have any questions or concerns.

This is a rule that has existed for a very long time. SCOMSA funds come directly from the Student Activity Fee. As a result, we strive to ensure that every cent goes towards benefiting BUSM in some way. We have long justified the use of our funds to reimburse individual students for their research conferences, already a situation where SAF money we all pay into is benefiting only one person, by looking at it as a way to help improve and strengthen BUSM’s reputation nationally and internationally as a research powerhouse. Thus, by conducting research outside of BU, this boost to BUSM is far less pronounced. By providing less funds, we hope to still be able to support BUSM’s students in their successes while focusing the majority of our resources on BU-based research.

Formal has long been SCOMSA’s most significant social expenditure of the year. It is also one mired in controversy. On one hand, medical students deserve the chance to relax and have fun. On the other, hosting an expensive party for a social justice medical school serving a safety-net population is a situation that requires careful thought. As time has passed, SCOMSA has slowly been pivoting away from spending vast amounts of money on Formal in favor of funding its student groups more. This isn’t to say Formal is going anywhere! Just that food options, venues, and other expenditures may be adapted to the changing landscape and be focused more on mission alignment (e.g. Formal 2022 was hosted at a venue where all revenue benefited underserved teens in the arts).