The Student Association went through requests for funding at Monday night's budget meeting, allowing members from each attending student organization to express their thoughts on the funding.
While many said they appreciated SA and the Finance Board's efforts, those who did not receive any funding spoke otherwise.
John Crandall, president of Pride Union, appeared frustrated that the Finance Board did not approve one of his organization's events.
"We are the only undergraduate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, hermaphrodite, and ally association on campus," Crandall said. "We would like the Finance Board to seriously consider (our events), as otherwise there will be no LGBT programming here on campus whatsoever, meaning that no LGBT students will be served by Student Association funds."
Organizations that did not receive any funding, or organizations that think they didn't receive adequate funding, can still receive funding through an appeals form due Friday. But many SA members said they felt their hands were tied.
"If we want them to have a chance to appeal, we have to pass the package, and then they can go through the process," SA Parliamentarian Robel Yemiru said.
The meeting began an hour late, after double booking of the meeting's original location in Maxwell Auditorium. The assembly spent an additional hour clarifying specific events that the Finance Board approved for funding.
Assembly members like Michael Fleishman, SA's technology director, said they were concerned that the Finance Board agreed to fund vaguely titled events. Members of the Finance Board said they felt having to clarify their reasoning to the assembly was unnecessary because they had already taken the time to analyze each budget proposal.
This semester, all the organizations were required to attend fiscal training meetings in order to participate in the budget process. Those that did not attend were not included. The Finance Board spent more than 40 hours making decisions on how to allocate SA's funds. The assembly voted on the finance board's decisions to fully, partially or not fund student organizations.
"The assembly is here to approve that the finance board has done their job right, correctly and in due process," SA Comptroller Lily Mei said.
The assembly first packaged the fully funded programs in order to vote on them all at once and save time. It voted to exclude six of the bills that members thought needed to be reviewed individually, and were therefore removed from the approved package. After events, including the public service based sorority Delta Sigma Theta's dance party, were more clearly defined, all six of the events were passed. All but one was passed unanimously.
Many thought this was time wasted.
"All the debate about the events has already been deliberated through the finance board," said Mei. "This is a waste of time."
In the end, the funds allocated by SA for fall programming came to a total of $557,717.51 and $40,000 will be available for appeals.
mlfreder@syr.edu
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