The Associated Student Government gathered Wednesday night for its New Student Organization Funding Senate meeting to allocate nearly $15,000 across 12 newly-formed student groups.
The quarterly allocation meeting gives new student groups their own space to appeal for funds.
“The main funding senate is super competitive. Every club that has been here for years and years and years is vying for funding,” SESP freshman and Parliamentarian JJ Nabors-Moore said. “Even though it’s just the appeals, it’s really difficult for a lot of newer clubs to get as much funding when they’re competing with these clubs that have such a big standing on campus.”
Reality dating show “Unscripted Love” received the most funding, netting $2,151. Communication junior Ananya Paul said the funding will be used for production of its second season, set to premiere next year.
The New Student Organization Support Fund requires each student organization representative to present a funding request to ASG senators, complete with a lower and upper bound funding request. Each group then takes questions from senators. After all groups have delivered their presentations, the meeting transitions to a “cut” and “add” phase during which funds are adjusted based on senate votes.
“If (senators) think that everything is sufficient, and that they funded things equally, and that they’re satisfied with the funding, then the money, if left over, will roll over to the next funding Senate,” Weinberg freshman and deputy Speaker of the Senate Rayan Lahlou-Nabil said.
Many new groups that received funding also included pre-professional affinity groups, like the Muslim Business Student Association and Undergraduate Latin American Law Association.
Cost efficiency factored heavily into how much money clubs requested. SESP sophomore and Muslim Business Student Association co-President Mahmoud El-Eshmawi was a proponent of providing food at club meetings, but said pricing shaped the types of food he requested funding for.
The Muslim Business Student Association took home $1,100 to pay for Domino’s pizza orders at its future meetings.
“Domino’s Pizza — we figured it was the cheapest, and obviously ASG thought the same,” El-Eshwami said, referring to ASG’s choice to cater from the chain for Thursday’s NSOSF meeting.
However, there were some limits to what NSOSF was able to fund.
Weinberg junior and Speaker of the Senate Kaitlyn Salgado-Alvarez noted that merchandise should not be funded by NSOSF, which led to a debate as to whether graduation stoles for co-ed business fraternity Phi Gamma Nu should be considered as such. ASG ultimately decided that stoles did not fall under the merchandise umbrella.
The NSOSF meeting also came as Medill senior and Resilient NU Senator Coby Potischman formally filed articles of impeachment against Weinberg sophomore and NU College Republicans Senator Hunter Gracey.
While an impeachment hearing limited to senators was initially planned for Wednesday’s meeting, it was canceled as the impeachment proceedings must first pass NU’s Office of Civil Rights. An official decision in the impeachment proceedings has yet to be reached.
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— New student organizations receive $11,000 in funding from ASG Senate
