One week after the Student Activities Finance Committee announced $2.09 million in funding allocations for student organizations, the Associated Student Government Senate allocated $50,000 on Wednesday to groups which appealed their funding decisions or did not apply for SAFC funding.
ASG’s $50,000 budget for Funding Senate appeals is allocated separately from SAFC’s tuition-funded budget. The budget was $30,000 last year. Despite the funding increase, organizations still requested more than was available — $82,093 in total.
Sixteen organizations received funding from the appeals process. Groups received money for speaker events, holiday celebrations, theater equipment, costumes, tournament fees and more.
Allocations ranged from $360 for NU Anime Club and Significant Others A Cappella to $9,600 for Speech Team.
SESP sophomore and ASG Co-President Caleb Snead encouraged senators to fully fund NU Mock Trial, Global Engagement Summit and Speech Team. Snead said the groups have exhausted their other possible funding sources and were at risk of not being able to continue operating.
NU Mock Trial received $8,882 — the full amount it requested — to fund travel costs for national tournaments.
“To be able to compete without any financial barriers is something that we really try to prioritize, and it’s a message that we talked about during recruitment,” Medill junior and NU Mock Trial Fundraising Chair Douglas Lee said. “To be able to do that, at least for the fall season, is something that we’re really happy about.”
Treblemakers, NU’s East Asian-interest a cappella group, initially received $3,500 of a $20,000 request to perform in Singapore and learn about Asian culture.
But senators later cut the group’s funding to zero, arguing that their initial allocation would not sufficiently reduce the financial burden on members of the group.
“We’re very thankful that people took their time to really consider us and really think about funding our mission of bringing multicultural diversity to campus,” McCormick freshman and Treblemakers Treasurer Dillon Su said.
Though Su said the group was disappointed in the outcome, members remain hopeful their trip can still happen.
The Senate also passed a resolution to establish a Pride House for LGBTQ+ students and a resolution urging NU to illuminate Deering Library with the colors of the pride flag for Pride Month, which the administration did last year.
“It’s important that (students) know that ASG is supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, that they can come to ASG with these issues and that we can confront them head on by passing legislation such as the Pride House,” said McCormick sophomore and ASG Parliamentarian James La Fayette Jr., who co-sponsored the Pride House legislation.
During the meeting, senators asked student group representatives questions to determine how much money to allocate to each group.
Senators primarily focused on how many students the organization served, how likely the group was to receive funding from alternative sources and how central the request was to the group’s core operations.
”People really asked good questions and really thought (the allocations) through and it wasn’t rushed at all,” Weinberg sophomore and Speaker of the Senate Grace Houren said. “It was tiring, but it was well thought out.”
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