After an hour of sitting in Norris University Center, ASG Financial Vice President Seva Rodnyansky had only one senator visit to ask questions about his group’s Student Activities Finance Board funding recommendations.
Rodnyansky said the lack of questions reflected an increase in information available to students in SAFB’s spring funding packets, which for the first time included explanations of the board’s funding decisions.
“I think people got more out of the funding descriptions than they have in the past,” the Weinberg junior said. “If they don’t have to complain, then they’re not going to see me.”
From top to bottom, this year’s SAFB recommendations came with little controversy. The overall funding has increased by 4 percent to $892,753 this year. Of that amount, $50,310 is available for tonight’s Senate session when groups will be able to lobby for more funding.
“There wasn’t a huge upswing, there wasn’t a huge downswing,” Rodnyansky said. “Petitioning was reasonable to the groups, and the groups were reasonably deserving.”
Among the most noticeable differences from last year’s recommendations are the board’s decision not to fund minority premedical association One Step Before and a $30,000 decrease in funding for College Democrats.
Rodnyansky said SAFB had talked with One Step Before since the recommendations to help the group receive funding from Senate.
“We aren’t the ones to say, ‘Here’s how much money we’ll give you to put on your event.’ We want groups to give us a choice in funding for X, Y and Z,” Rodnyansky said.
For College Democrats, SAFB decreased funding because the group was found guilty of financial misconduct. Among other offenses, they used unauthorized funds to bring former CIA agent Valerie Plame to campus, said SAFB account executive Cassie Witten.
The Weinberg senior said when SAFB paid Plame’s $19,000 fee out of its contingency funds, the money was stripped from College Democrats’ funding last year.
“College Democrats couldn’t take credit for that event since they didn’t pay for it from their own account,” Witten said. “Because of that, they ended up having a lot less money throughout the year and that was the reasoning behind the lower recommendation.”
College Democrats accepted the recommendation, although they may seek an increase during tonight’s funding meeting, said College Democrats Senator Jeff Cao.
“It’s about right given all that’s happened this year,” the Weinberg sophomore said. “We don’t have any expectations for anything to be added – I’m going to wait and see what the situation tomorrow night is.”
For the most part, the discrepancies between student groups’ requests and SAFB’s recommendations came from requests for new events or increases in funding for events to be held later this quarter, Rodnyansky said.
“Generally, we fund at a decreased or the same level because it is one thing to give recommendations for what we have already seen,” Rodnyansky said. “It’s another thing to recommend for something that’s in the future.”
Witten, who is also an A&O Productions senator, said the $175,000 difference between A&O’s request and its actual funding resulted from asking for money for both an intellectual and a cultural speaker.
“They always like to have an intellectual speaker and a cultural speaker on their funding petition,” Witten said. “It’s been like that as long as I’ve been a senator, and it’s never funded.”
Rodnyansky said that despite the lack of controversy, the tradition of SAFB funding dominating two consecutive Senate sessions would also continue.
“Even when the Senate or the SAFB has thought it would be one, it’s been two,” Rodnyansky said. “It’s almost better if you have two because then clearly no one is skipped over.”
