After five hours of voting on fall budget allocations for student organizations, the Student Association Assembly decided to rescind its decision to pass its own request for money to bring a political speaker to campus.

Debate arose after all budget bills had been passed for student organizations that requested funding, except those that did not attend their budget hearings and those whose requests received recommendations of no funding from the Finance Board. Some Assembly representatives believed by rescinding the Student Association allocation, the organizations that did not receive funding would have a chance to receive some during the appeals process.

SA requested $82,138.00 to bring an unknown Tier 1 political speaker for its 50th birthday celebration next semester. Tier 1 speakers, comedians or musical artists are ones that draw the largest audiences and are also the most expensive. The Finance Board recommended an allocation of $77,138.00. When the Assembly originally voted, the bill passed.

Chief of Staff Ryan Kelly said he and other SA members had done a lot of research and had decided to bring an elected official such as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Because most elected officials cost about $120,000 to bring to campus, SA would seek outside funding from the university and other sources, he said.

In researching the event, Kelly and others involved saw a lot of political apathy on campus among students, and they decided a political figure would be a good speaker to bring to motivate students to become more politically active, he said.

Adam Gorode, chair of University Union Concerts, found some problems with this request. He said the SA codes forbid giving gifts to elected officials currently in office. Later, Parliamentarian Ryan Doyle, who directed the meeting, corrected him by saying the codes only dictate gifts to officials are illegal if they are currently running for office.

Many political speakers refuse payment and ask for the money to go to his or her favorite charity, Kelly said.

If the money was given as a donation, it must first come back to SA before it can be given to the charity, Gorode said. Before, SA had passed a bill to allocate a recommended $12,553.04 to Hillel Jewish Student Union for its dance marathon that would raise money for children with AIDS. That money would first have to come back to SA before being given to the charity as well.

Other representatives from student organizations who attended the meeting to voice their opinions about the Finance Board recommendations said allocating this money would take money from smaller organizations that were not able to receive funding.

‘We don’t want anyone to feel like we’re robbing them,’ Kelly said. He added that SA does not normally request funding besides its usual budget.

Gorode said SA should have asked UU to co-sponsor the event to cut costs. Kelly said when UU was asked to co-sponsor, the offer was not accepted.

A motion was made to table the bill until more information was obtained. This motion failed.

‘Tabling isn’t going to solve anything,’ Doyle said.

After all the Student Activity Fee money had been allocated, several groups were left without funding.

‘Our hands are tied – there’s nothing we can really do,’ Doyle said.

Representatives from the organizations that did not receive funding were given two minutes each to voice their opinions.

UU requested $69,821.44 for a Tier 2 concert, $44,721.44 for a Tier 3 concert, $51,674.54 for a Tier 2 comedian and $51,428.00 for a Tier 2 speaker. None of these requests received funding.

‘This is the first time in a long time that a Tier 2 concert has not been funded,’ Gorode said.

He then brought back the topic of SA passing the Finance Board recommendation for its political speaker.

‘It just isn’t good for you to give yourselves $80,000 … without utilizing these (other) groups (as co-sponsors),’ he said. Many gallery members applauded.

The Black Artist League requested $14,344.90 for its ‘You Got Jokes?’ comedy showcase, which received no funding. BAL President Jasmine Thompson said this event had received funding every year before. BAL also received a ‘Most Outstanding Student Group of the Year’ award this year, she said.

‘This would be a great disservice to not fund this,’ she said.

Other organizations voiced dissatisfaction with being denied funding, and many said the SA bill recommending $77,138.00 in funds could have gone to many other organizations for their events. Some leaders of cultural campus groups cited a lack of diversity or corruption within the Finance Board.

‘I look at this Finance Board and I see it is mostly white males,’ said SA Vice President of University Affairs Kiana Cornish. Her speech received loud applause.

A motion was made to rescind the decision to pass SA’s bill because of these complaints.

‘Our intention wasn’t to take money away from the Student Fee or other groups,’ Kelly said.

‘We’re not trying to start a fight … we just want to put on a really solid event,’ he said.

Many gallery members began raising their voices in protest, and Doyle shouted into his microphone to silence them.

But some SA representatives also found problems with the bill.

‘This is completely inconsistent with everything we have ever done,’ said Representative Patrick Tomeny. His words were greeted with resounding applause.

The motion to rescind the allocation to SA was passed with one abstention. The Assembly then had to revote on the bill to allocate the money, which it then failed unanimously with four abstentions.

As the clock approached midnight, Doyle suggested packaging the remaining bills together that did not receive funding and voting to fail them. Failure would allow the Finance Board to deliberate on the distribution of the money SA had just freed up from failing to allocate itself the $77,138.00 to the organizations that were not funded.

Finance Board member Adam Jones said packaging the bills and passing them would be easier. The organizations that did not receive funding could then appeal for the freed-up $77,138.00 and have a better chance of receiving it. This would also mean the appeals process would not be pushed into next semester if the Finance Board did not have to re-deliberate. Appeals money can only be given out this semester.

A motion was made to follow Jones’ suggestion. It passed.

The day after the meeting, Kelly said he was upset the SA bill failed because it could have brought a big-name political figure to get the student body more interested in politics.

‘I think we did the right thing,’ he said, ‘but I think we made the wrong choice … it’s intimidating when you have people yelling at you all the time.’

Published on April 24, 2006 at 12:00 pm