Students argued over the way that the Student Association allocates funds to recognized student organizations at Monday night’s SA meeting.

‘There is a small amount of the pie to go around, and everyone absolutely wants a share,’ said Robel Yemiru, SA’s Parliamentarian, about the difficulty of giving every recognized student organization the amount of money they want.

SA is in the thick of its budget season. Next Monday it must present the budget. Assembly members were voting on the passage of the ‘financial vision,’ a bill SA’s finance board can reference when deciding how much money to give to student organizations. Members of various student organizations came to the meeting to discuss standards of the vision they did not agree with.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir, a member of the Muslim Student Association and the Student African American Society, said student organizations often have to jointly host events in order to receive funding.

‘Every year organizations are told that they have to do, in essence, forced collaboration,’ Abdul-Qadir said.

This collaboration forces organizations to share time and diminishes the point that each group wants to address during events, said Nancy Cleveland, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Black Artist League.

SA fully supports the individuality of each student organization, Yemiru said, and is simply pushing for collaboration on events that seem repetitive, such as speakers that can be relevant to several student groups.

Students also had a problem with a portion of the bill that says SA is more likely to give funding to campus organizations that present ‘balanced perspectives.’ Different campus publications offer material geared toward specific groups or views, for example, and they still deserve funding, said Tuso Boothe, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Yemiru changed the wording of the bill to state that SA supports organizations that present a ‘balanced and/or unique’ perspective, in order to satisfy the students’ concerns. In addition, the bill was changed to say that SA ‘encourages collaboration’ between groups and their events.

After the debate on the bill, assembly members voted in a new member and chair of the Board of Elections and Membership. Marion Araque, a junior policy studies and international relations major, was elected as a member of the board, and Angelo Coker, a junior hospitality major, was elected the Board of Elections and Membership chair.

SA will hold elections for president, comptroller and assembly representatives Nov. 9-12. Bridget Schultz, SA’s director of public relations, encouraged assembly members to tell others through Facebook, text messaging, and word of mouth to vote Monday.

SA’s representatives to the Board of Trustees met with the board about MayFest on Friday. Larry Seivert, SA president, said he wanted to assure people that progress is being made and SA needs patience from students.

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm