“It’s a scary two words to hear,” says IUSG Vice President Maggie Hopkins regarding unapproved spending by the student government. “It takes money to run a student government.”

IUSG, formerly known as IUSA, came under fire when the newly elected Congress discovered expenses from summer, before they approved a budget. Hopkins says the spending is mainly from a conference trip to Michigan.

“It’s important we go to these conferences in order to coordinate with other Big Ten student governments.”

Other expenses, such as paying rent for their office space, came from the unapproved budget. Hopkins attributes the issue to the recent change in election dates. IUSG used to hold elections in spring, but this year they changed it to fall.  The change in date made it difficult to approve a budget before the summer months.

Moving forward IUSG executives plan to mitigate the issue.

“If I were to speculate at all, I would say that Congress would pass through a budget in spring, before they leave for the summer that would continue on until the fall semester started,” says Hopkins. “So we don’t run into this again.”

Seventy cents of each student’s activity fee is allocated to the student government, which Hopkins says adds up to about $30,000.

IUSG’s Supreme Court will hear Congress’s injunctive relief petition and come to a final decision this week.