Leaders of campus student groups appealed to next year’s Student Association officials this week for a fairer and more flexible system of student group allocations.
“(The current process) is just too hard,” said Paige Normand, president of the GW Taekwondo club. “I realize there are internal controls, but it makes people afraid of (the process).”
SA President-elect Carrie Potter, Executive Vice President-elect Jesse Strauss and other newly-elected SA representatives met Monday to develop the system they will use next year to distribute money to campus organizations for projects and programs.
Strauss said he hopes to create a clearer, easier and fairer allocation process for student groups.
“Allocating money is one of the most important things the SA does and we want to make sure we are doing it right,” he said.
Current SA President Kuyomars “Q” Golparvar said the SA receives 2.5 percent of student fees for allocation to registered student organizations that apply for SA money.
Among other concerns, student group leaders stressed flexibility as a necessary component of the allocation process.
WRGW General Manager Debbie Rothberg said the SA must be flexible with the needs of groups because each organization has distinct characteristics.
“With a group like WRGW, we don’t have events, we just have expenses,” Rothberg said. “But when a microphone breaks, we need a new one now. We can’t wait three weeks for the money to get a new one.”
Group leaders also requested that the Senate’s Finance Committee give organizations the criteria it uses to consider how much money a group is allocated.
J.P. Blackford, current chair of the Finance Committee, said the committee considers the number of members in the group and the attendance at group events.
The committee also takes into account the group’s membership dues and the amount of money it spent from the previous year’s allocations, he said.
“Expected attendance is about the highest priority,” Blackford said. “We also look at how much money the organization has. If we see that if we don’t give them this money they can’t have the event, we’ll probably help co-sponsor it.”
“If a group has 20 members and it has an event where all 20 show up, that’s a great event,” Potter said.
Ben Kirschner, who represented the Interfraternity Council, said he was given instructions on how to conduct himself at the allocations meeting by friends who had been through the process before.
“I was literally told `whatever you need, ask for three times as much because you’ll get one third of what you ask for,’ ” Kirschner said.
