The Student Bar Association Senate unanimously voted to distribute close to $200,000 in annual funding at their special meeting Thursday.
The SBA Budget Allocation Act dispersed a total of $194,997 into three categories — $104,997 for student organizations, $20,000 to the ad hoc fund and $70,000 to the SBA Executive Budget. SBA Sen. Akhil Kambhammettu, the chair of the senate’s Finance Committee and the sponsor of the bill, said SBA President Shallum Atkinson decided to “drop” the anticipated executive budget from $90,000 to $70,000, putting an additional $20,000 toward funding student organizations.
Kambhammettu said pulling $20,000 from the executive budget allowed him to fulfill all of the law student organizations’ 15 appeals, except for one organization that he kept the same and for two organizations where senators increased the amount they allocated, although it wasn’t the full requested amount.
Senators passed an amendment 10-1 that allocated an additional $1,000 of the Organizational Oversight Preparedness Supplement fund to the GW International Arbitration Students Association. SBA Sen. Charlie Schmidt, who introduced the amendment, said he believes Anisa Ostad, the president of the organization, is a “visionary leader.” He said the SBA did not use the OOPS fund in the previous year and that the money “evaporated into thin air.”
“The initial request was $18,000 because they have these plans and were very disappointed to see the allocation of $200 some dollars,” Schmidt said. “They’re like shoot, all of our big plans are out the window and this vision for having two conferences, they can’t do that.”
Senators rejected an amendment 5-6 that would allocate $500 of the ad hoc fund to the Student Intellectual Property Law Association. SBA Sen. Christopher Swindell, who introduced the amendment, said he was concerned about how organizations with fewer members are getting more money than SIPLA, which is the largest law student organization on campus.
“When you look at the active members, you have other groups that have the same amount of members who are getting $9,000 or $12,000,” Swindell said.
