I’ve gotten some condemnation today from some select SA insiders about The Hatchet being too hard on the Senate Finance Committee in Thursday’s article. (Student orgs complain about perceived lack of SA funds) I stand by our article and do not believe that it was bias one way or the other. I think Jenette did a good job of portraying both sides of the story- student organizations that want more money through co-sponsorships and a finance committee that feels they are restricted from doing so because of the nature of the events and the funds available. This is obviously a complex and sensitive subject, let me try to shed some more light on the issue and include some facts that were not highlighted in the article.
In September the Finance committee gave out a 41% increase in the amount that student organizations were initially allocated in comparison to last year. Some student organizations got the same amount of funding as last year and a small minority got a cut in funding. Overall, however, most student organizations got more money this year than last. Great news for student organizations, it seems. This means, however, that even less money is left in the co-sponsorship fund, which is banked money to fund student life programming on campus.
With more money already given out to student organizations from the initial allocation and less money available to give out through co-sponsorships, this puts the finance committee in a tough situation and they are forced to take an exceptionally critical eye at which events they are funding. As highlighted in the article, the finance committee was against giving the IAJ money because they were charging students admission at the door.
The IAJ, PSA and MSA are still upset they did not get funding, and they have valid claims as well. The SA has about $180,000 to give out to student organizations and a mid-year reclamation of funds that will add at least a couple thousand more dollars to the co-sponsorship fund by next semester. IAJ said they feel left out they are not getting money to put on student life events and help needy victims from the Pakistani earthquake.
Leaders also said not getting enough funding, in their opinion, from the SA curtailed their ability to advertise in The Hatchet to better publicize the event. The IAJ asked for $2000 from the SA, and the finance committee offered the IAJ $250. IAJ leaders did not accept the $250 on an ideological rejection of the finance committee. With that $250, however, the IAJ could have bought multiple ads in The Hatchet for less than $100.
As I said, I think the article was fair to both sides, it presented arguments from both parties involved and was presented in an objective way. Was it newsworthy? 15 representatives from IAJ, PSA and MSA were at the Senate meeting talking about it and some senators have plans to introduce legislation to ensure problems like this don’t happen again. That is news, folks.
