USG's finances are managed by the Faculty Student Association (FSA), an auxiliary services corporation whose budget is independent of the university.

Secondly, the operating budget for the 2001 - 2002 year was rejected by then Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Frederick R. Preston citing questionable increases of funding to clubs which had affiliations with elected officials.

Preston refused to accept the results of the election due to the low turnout and threatened to decertify Polity and place the SAF under administrative receivership until a new Student Government could be established unless the Senate resolved the Presidential issue.

Legislation was passed by the Polity Senate in early February 2002 to forego having another runoff election, and allow Interim President Lawrence to serve out the rest of the year.

This was done to give Polity the opportunity to concentrate on reforming the internal structure and governing documents without the burden of appropriating SAF money to student clubs and organizations.

Kenny released a memo dated October 11 stating that the Student Polity Association had been decertified following the direct appeal from the SPA President 8 days earlier.

Polity, however, had not been allowed to distribute the SAF since May since it had been placed in receivership and this was more of a formality to begin the process of forming a new undergraduate student government.

Many members of the Polity Council were chosen by the university administration to run the interim student government in order to minimize the disruption to clubs/organizations as well as event planning for the undergraduate community.

The GTF was co-chaired by Norm Goodman, former Chair of the Sociology Department and a student from the Harriman School of Business Management and Policy, Jasleen Kaur.

The university administration representatives were: Dean of Students Jerrold Stein and the Assistant Vice President for Presidential Initiatives, George Meyer.

The Student Activities Board was left unchanged, structured much like a club with a general body, and a fraction of the size it was decades ago when Stony Brook was known as a frequent concert venue.

In Spring 2005, the USG Constitution was amended to enable the new government to secure its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service in Article II, Sections 2.2. through 2.4.

[19][20] During the same semester, new efforts led by the local College Republicans club began to institute wide-ranging reforms, including changes to the Elections Board Bylaws to remove restrictions on electioneering and campaign spending, and to simultaneously allow for the creation of recognized political parties.

And then, pushing for a more comprehensive approach to funding religious and political clubs, who at the time were barred from utilizing the Student Activity Fee.

[19][20] Several other reforms were instituted later that academic year under the leadership of the SUCCESS coalition, including the student tutoring program, PASS, which drew bipartisan support.

In this year, the reformed Student Activities Board led the way in Event Programming, hosting popular artists, comedians and lectures to sellout crowds.

The Agency coordinated and marketed the new series that featured surf-rock band Best Coast,[31][32] comedian Aziz Ansari,[33] underground hip hop artist Immortal Technique,[34] and consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

In Fall 2019, the student body voted in favor of approving constitutional reform which abolished the Judicial Branch of USG for the purposes of protection from legal liability and improving operational cost efficiency.

The changes were justified by the claim that continued payment of Supreme Court Justices for office hours despite a notable lack of tasks available was financially wasteful.

This resulted in the passage of the 2010 Act to Restore Sanity to the Club Funding Process, which added that the Council would be made up of members from the Senate's Programming and Activities Committee.

In 2005, they were amended to remove restrictions on electioneering and campaign spending, and to allow for the creation of recognized political parties that could appear on the ballot in the Spring and Fall elections.

In early Spring 2011, President Matthew Graham, VP of Communications David Mazza and SPA Director Moiz Khan Malik led an initiative to close the closed-circuit aspect of the television stating, citing a lack of activity and consistent waste of funds.

They were successful in their attempt as the Senate passed the 2011 Reformation of Stony Brook University - Television and replaced the channel with SMPTE color bars.

This has been a long-standing presence of student government on campus, mainly providing ticket sales services to large programming clubs.

Established in 1962, COCA was chartered with the task of creating a vibrant campus life for less outgoing students by showing movies on a regular basis.

[48] At its peak, COCA was a thriving business showing a Feature Film every Friday and Saturday in the largest lecture hall on campus seating more than 500 students, Javits 100.

In 1970, the decision was made to form SCOOP with plans to incorporate in order to unite student businesses under one legitimate organization overseen by the FSA.

[53] Originally named the Office of Web Technologies and Financial Informatics (OWTFI), this was formed in the Spring of 2010 to coincide with the development of ALLOCATE, an open source project known as the Student Life Loupe.

The intent is for this agency to continue to develop and maintain all software and web assets of the USG, in order to remove this responsibility from elected officials who may not have the ability to do so.

A quasi-independent agency headed by the Advocate General, who serves as the USG's representative for internal court cases, as well as an investigator into financial issues.