Valencia College’s Student Government Association proposal for updating campus furniture with the 2021 Valencia College budget team has been approved and is in progress.

Joshua Austin, one of the directors of Student Development for the west region, when asked how much of the budgeting goes towards Valencia campuses, he said that around $700,000 goes to campus operations: the Student Development offices themselves, clubs, organizations, departments, and programs that request dollars to do activities. With the furniture, the team had a conversation with the administration on where the unused budget money would benefit the student’s experiences. The SGA proposed the idea of changing the lounge, patio, and seatings. Some campuses haven’t changed their furniture in years. So the proposal of updating them was approved.

Valencia College has started the process of renovation. “We have to make sure that we spend the money for the fiscal year before July 1, because our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June. So we have to make sure that all of the furniture and the money for this year is spent before. Offices might start working on it at a different time. So there might have been solidifying start dates, but everything has to be done by then,” said Austin.

In an interview with the Lake Nona SGA president Angel Moronta, he shared that the discussion on changing the campus furniture started around one year ago. “ Some campuses have started changing their furniture, Lake Nona is one of them,” said Moronta. The SGA president discussed how, during the discussion for updating the furniture, many people said yes from the start. Moronta added that the furniture renovations should be finished by the end of summer 2021.

Each Valencia College campus is given around  $10,000 of funding to repurpose into improvement projects. Some Campus deans that feel their furniture is still new or in good condition can pass up the money, allocating it towards other uses.  “Our campuses are aging some of the furniture, this is the time for us to do it. This is the time to try to push that up,” said Austin.