Imagine spending four hours of your Friday night staring at figures on a budget sheet and going over pages and pages of bylaws. Now, imagine doing the same thing for eight hours that following Saturday.

Government of the Student Body Finance Director David Boike, senior electrical engineering, will spend his weekend doing just that.

Boike will sift through 20 budgets submitted by 20 campus organizations — he’s responsible for deciding how to fund the groups out of the $25,000 he has to work with during GSB’s Special Allocations process.

“At the end of the last hour, I’m looking forward to going home, but I enjoy it,” Boike says. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”

When it’s time to fund campus groups during the Regular Allocation process this coming spring, Boike will spend 14-hour days on campus doing the same thing.

Boike says the worst part of his job is dealing with campus groups who don’t understand why sometimes he can’t give them the money they’d like to have.

“I would zero-fund my own grandmother if she went against the bylaws,” he explains. “You have to separate your emotions and follow the law.

“To an extent, it’s like a child asking a parent for an allowance. Of course they want more money, but you have to tell them no, especially when there are 200 other children.”

With the Special Allocations process just around the corner, Boike starts his day by “putting out fires” that have resulted from disagreements and miscommunication between GSB and groups seeking funding.

— Tom Barton