Rivers

Associated Student Government unanimously passed SB09055, approving $138,459.38 in allocations for over 60 recognized student organizations for fiscal year 2011 at last Thursday’s meeting.

“It was really great meeting with all of these groups and hearing what they’re doing because I think they will do some fantastic things,” said Jonathan Rivers, fiscal affairs committee chair and junior secondary education major. “Emporia State has a really bright future.”

ASG received requests totaling over $225,000, an amount that Rivers said was less than the preceding year.

In order to reduce the allocation amount into a target range between $137,000 and $142,000, ASG first makes a series of guideline cuts.

“Guideline cuts are cuts that we normally make for all allocations, except we changed a few things this year,” Rivers said as he addressed the gallery.

He said that the amount that can be requested for lodging was increased by $20, which brings the total to $110 for 1 to 4 travelers or $200 for 5 to 8 travelers for two nights. Printing and publicity was increased to $275 and speakers to $450.

The guideline cuts reduced the requested $225,000 by about $80,000. To bring it the target range, an additional 14 percent was deducted from each RSO’s request.

“Basically the 14 percent reduced it down by like $500 which was pretty miniscule but put us where we wanted to be,” Rivers said in an interview. “It’s nice because last year they had to cut about 28 percent and they had to cut about $90,000-100,000, and we didn’t have to cut nearly as much, which was pretty encouraging.”

Lauren Halstead, president of the Didde Catholic Campus Center and junior elementary education major, said the process was clearly communicated and easy to understand.

“I think things went well,” Halstead said. “I ran into a couple problems in the beginning but I know people in ASG and they were very open and made sure that they were catering to me and that I was understanding the entire process.”

The Didde Campus Catholic Center requested about $4,700 and received roughly $2,100, more than Halstead had expected.

“This is actually a lot more than we’ve received in the past,” Halstead said. “I was actually really pleased even though we only got half of it. We just apply for as much as we can knowing that we wouldn’t get it all.”

The group will use the money to attend “March For Life” in Washington, D.C., a Pro-Life rally supported by different associations and political groups. In the past, some members of the Didde Catholic Campus Center went but had to find a different way to fund it.

Jessica Santifer, president of Sigma Gamma Rho and junior elementary education major, was also pleased with the funding that her organization received through allocations. Sigma Gamma Rho received roughly $2,300 and had requested nearly $4,300.

“I was actually quite surprised, I didn’t expect that we would get that much,” Santifer said. “I’m also in the Black Student Union and we got more than they did, so I was surprised by that, too.”

Santifer said the allocation money will go towards conferences, recruitment, community service activities and other things to help expand the sorority. It was reactivated on campus in December.

She thought the process went smoothly, but did not think that attending last week’s ASG meeting was necessary.

“I thought when I went to the meeting it was going to be more about the allocations,” Santifer said. “The timing of the meeting was not reasonable and it really didn’t address allocations. I didn’t think it was very considerate of people’s time to require them to go.”

Rivers said groups that are unsatisfied with the funding they received can go through the reserve fund request method next school year as extra funds are needed.

Because of complications and possible miscommunication with a few groups, ASG will review three more allocation requests at its meeting next Thursday.

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