By Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern
The Residence Hall Association gave $2,000 last quarter to seven student groups it said promote a sense of campus community.
The funds financed groups such as Tonik Tap, a dance troupe, and MustardSeed Magazine, a Christian student publication.
RHA gives about $2,000 per quarter on a first-come, first-serve basis to on-campus student groups, said RHA President Kendall Drew, a McCormick sophomore.
The money is taken from RHA’s budget, which consists of social dues gathered by each residence hall and money from RHA’s own fundraising events.
Some other groups that received funding this year include Dance Marathon, the dance company BLAST and Arts Alliance.
“A lot of times, we help groups who do not get any or a lot of funding from the University by giving them usually $200 to $500,” Drew said. “By giving money to the student groups, we feel that we are helping them create the community on campus.”
The RHA Web site states that funding from RHA should be the last resort for student groups that have other means of fundraising for their projects and events.
Three dollars of each resident’s social dues go toward the student group fund.
Drew said she would like to see this money put toward events and projects that would benefit the 3,000 students living in residence halls.
In addition to funding student groups, the association allocates money to maintain and upgrade the residence halls and to promote RHA events and formals. In previous years, RHA has funded events such as New Student Week’s Rock the Beach and trips to the Six Flags amusement park.
The funding allocation began earlier this academic year with an application process. Each student group prepared a project or event proposal which included how much money they hoped to receive from RHA as well as how their project would benefit the student body.
After student group representatives presented each group’s plan to the general assembly, the RHA voted on all the proposals. After the meeting, Drew contacted the project leaders to inform them of the association’s final decision.
Lauren Parnell, co-chairwoman of the Northwestern Community Development Corps, said she found out RHA was funding student groups from the HereAndNow Web portal.
After going through the RHA funding process, NCDC received $250 to fund its Mini Grant Program, which goes toward Family Focus, a non-profit after-school program.
“I’m grateful because NCDC isn’t the kind of organization that can raise funds through Student Activities Funding Board money,” said Parnell, a SESP senior. “We’re excited because we can fund a program that we’ve wanted to do for a while now.”
Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].
