For more than three hours Wednesday evening, Associated Student Government senators, the Student Appropriations Funds Committee and student group leaders discussed how to allocate $9,700 among 29 student groups.
The supplemental funding meeting, held in Annenberg Hall, gave funds ranging from $4,000 for A&O Productions to $200 for Students for Ecological and Environmental Development, and took money away from other budgets allocated to student groups.
A motion proposed by A&O chairman Adam Pumm, a Weinberg senior, and passed by the Senate gave the organization $4,000 to allow a venue change for A&O’s spring concert from Patten Gymnasium to the Riviera Theatre in Andersonville. This decision sparked controversy as it created a $1,935 deficit in the amount of available funds.
ASG also voted to give the Chinese Students Association $3,685. CSA had originally received a small sum due to request errors. CSA President Wenhao Sun spoke on behalf of CSA and requested an additional $400 for audiovisual capabilities for CSA’s spring show. The motion passed, but was later cut.
“$400 is the bare minimum, but the Senate has spoken,” the McCormick senior said. “We need sound and sight to put on the show.”
Other large sums were allocated to Verse Tour and UNITY. Both groups received $1,000 for their spring shows while One Voice received an additional $3,200 for their staging and lighting fund.
After it allocated funds to each group, the Senate faced a deficit of $5,135 and had to propose cuts.
The first motion was to cut $500 from CSA. Sun contested the proposal and stressed CSA had already cut their funds by 25 percent from last year.
“Bringing in between 100 and 200 people to the spring show, we can’t compete with groups that bring several hundred people,” he said, “But we are an important niche of Northwestern’s community.”
Representatives from Verse Tour, SEED and Northwestern Community Development Corps said they realized the tightness of the budget and volunteered to forfeit money from their funds. The motions were welcomed by a round of applause.
“This is one of the first times I’ve had to see so many groups cut (their funds),” said Malavika Srinivasan, head of SAFC.
During the debate over A&O’s funding, SEED Senator Julia Brook motioned to cut $500 from A&O’s venue change fund. In proportion to the large amount of money A&O had already received, $500 would not affect their ability to hold the concert at the Riviera, the Weinberg senior said.
Barry McCardel, A&O’s co-director of promotions and public relations, instead volunteered to give up $500 from A&O’s winter speaker honorarium fund.
“This is a venue we have to book now,” the Communication junior said. “We can’t run off the assumption that we’ll be able to raise $500. That’s just not realistic to us.”
As the meeting moved into its third hour, the Senate decided to use the Senate Project Pool to cover the remaining deficit. The project pool contained $7,500 and has only existed for two years. The Senate is given these funds to use at its discretion, and last year part of the money was used to pay for water bottles on Dillo Day.
This is money we’ve taken directly from students with the intention of going directly toward students,” said SAFC member Jeff Cao, a Weinberg senior. “We’re here to support student groups. Let’s actually do it.”
Despite especially tight funding, Srinivasan said the meeting went well.
“I’m happy; I think it worked out well,” the Weinberg senior said. “Usually it’s the SFAC fighting against student groups’ appeals. That didn’t happen this year.”
