Arts Alliance will appeal a decision by the Student Activities Finance Board at tonight’s Senate meeting that would strip most of its ASG funding.
The board recommended demoting Arts Alliance and two other student groups from A-status to B-status at SAFB’s annual review Jan. 14, said SAFB Chairwoman Sara Ittelson, a Communication junior. The demotion would make the groups ineligible to receive money from the Student Activities Fee, a $40 quarterly fee.
Demoted student groups can appeal to SAFB and to the Senate. Student Blood Services, a group that organizes blood drives, did not appeal and was demoted from A-status to B-status.
Northwestern’s chapter of Amnesty International successfully appealed to SAFB and will remain A-status.
“(The board was) just worried about having enough younger members to be on the exec board,” said Amnesty International Co-President Kristin Dew, a Medill senior and former Daily staffer.
The group gave SAFB members names of younger members who could fill the board. If they had lost student government funding, they would have had to rely on smaller fundraising opportunities and donations from university departments, Dew said.
Groups can be demoted if they misuse funds, if they do not attract enough students to events or if they simply do not need the money because their events are small and they can fundraise on their own.
Arts Alliance has not received funding from the activity fee for its own events for several years but needs to remain A-status so it can receive money to co-sponsor events with other groups, said President Stephanie Sherline, a Communication junior. The group collaborates with other student organizations to hold events such as its drag show with Rainbow Alliance.
ASG executive board members are polling students to see if there is interest in raising the activity fee so ASG could fund B-status groups as well.
ASG members spent the last week collecting the signatures of more than 200 students who expressed interest in raising the fee. A poll about the proposal is scheduled to be posted on the HereAndNow Web site today. The poll will remain online for a week, said Jay Schumacher, ASG’s executive vice president and a Communication junior. The proposal would raise the fee by $2 per quarter in 2007 and 2008, and by $1.30 per quarter starting in 2009.
At Wednesday’s meeting senators also will hear a bill aimed at improving cell phone service on campus. The bill proposes polling students to determine which cell phone service providers are popular and where each service has poor reception.
If the bill passes, ASG members will bring the results of the poll to university officials who might use the student input to make improvements, said Interfraternity Council Sen. Matthew Bogusz, the bill’s author.
Bogusz, a Weinberg freshman, said better cell phone reception would make students safer in an emergency.
“The first line of defense is not going to be a blue phone,” Bogusz said. “It’s going to be the phone in your pocket.”
Reach Diana Samuels at [email protected].
