When student groups appeal for additional funding at next week’s Senate meeting, only the Associated Student Government will have the backing of Financial Vice President Carson Kuo.
ASG plans to appeal for a new Web server worth $20,900. If ASG’s bid is successful, Senate will be left with less than $10,000 of its $30,567 pool to allocate to other groups.
Kuo said ASG did not receive the money for the new server due to the “stringent” nature of fall funding and an unclear proposal, but that it deserved to get the money in the appeals process.
“In my opinion, there definitely is (enough money for the server), because the other groups requesting the money are just unmeritorious,” said Kuo, an Education senior. “In the add round, ASG is the one group we won’t speak against.”
Kuo said that even if ASG gets the server, he will not recommend that the additional $10,567 go to another student group. The money would roll over toward spring funding.
“Any money that goes in spring is always helpful,” Kuo said.
But some groups that didn’t receive much of the $280,000 allocated by the Student Activities Finance Board, were livid that they might not receive money for programming.
For Members Only requested more than $85,000 for two events, including bringing a speaker such as Spike Lee to campus Spring Quarter. The group received only $200.
Tiffany Berry, FMO coordinator, expressed disappointment that SAFB had rejected the group’s request for a Winter Quarter concert because Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month both fall then.
Berry, a Weinberg junior, said she knew a group’s history helped determine funding.
“(But) if ASG denies us money, they will be taking away from the black community, especially the freshmen because we have started off so good with them,” she said.
Berry said FMO will appeal to the Senate at next week’s meeting for funding for at least one FMO event. She said ASG receiving money for the server was “ridiculous.”
SAFB already recommended Wednesday that ASG receive $50,219 for a binding machine, the weekend shuttle to Chicago and a MLK Day speaker.
Prashant Velagaleti, ASG’s technology director, said the 2-year-old current student group server has become outdated. It crashed three times during the summer, and student groups only have 20 megabytes of Web space.
Velagaleti said he had to use his personal computer to run a forum allowing students to find rides to campus in September, he said.
Projects such as the HereAndNow Web site, which grew from ASG, would be impossible to implement in the future unless a server is granted, Velagaleti said.
“Things like that won’t happen in the future if ASG can’t give its students some of the infrastructure it needs,” said Velagaleti, a McCormick senior.
Arts Alliance received none of the $6,680 it requested, but probably will back Wave Productions or the Dolphin Show in their appeals next week. Nick Barnett, alliance president, said Kuo’s reasoning was understandable as long as the needs of all student groups were met for the upcoming year.
“He should probably speak on behalf of more than one group,” said Barnett, a Speech junior. “A lot of groups have very good reasons for wanting more money, but I’m not going to disregard him helping ASG.”
