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--- - --- -- -------------------------------------- Thursday, October 5, 2000 - Page 4 NEWS SGA debates allocations for campus organizations MEGAN K. MARTIN campus. "Limited membership," she added, honor societies. The guidel.ines do give pref- continued, "That's not nearly enough time Student Government Reporter "does not equal unimportance of actions." erence to proposals that are open to and ben- [to prepare] a well-thought out proposal." The Student Government Assembly dis- Kelly agreed with this statement. His efit the largest portions of the community. He also said that the SGA needs to find tributed $10,290 to 29 clubs on September concern was that the older service organiza- Holmes had another suggestion. In order more of a balance of "history and momen- 21. This year the SGA received $15,000 to nons were getting less funding than some of to facilitate debates and discussion on each tum" when deciding on their allocations. distribute to student organizations over both the newer cultural organizations. club's allocation, she would like to see each One organization did not find the alloca- semesters, The confirmation of the altoca- After the discussion ended, the assembly member of the SGA receive a copy of the tion process to be favorable. Tony Halloran, tions was not without conflict, however. voted on each organfaauon's allocation. Most allocation proposals. president of the Hurling Club, felt that the Senior class president Jeremiah Kelly passed unanimously and all organizations A third suggestion came from money was "not distributed very evenly or was troubled by a discrepancy he noticed be- received money. Bartolomeo. fairly." The Hurling Club-asked for $625 and tween the total amount received by cultural The newly formed Hurling Club and the He would like to see the school delegate only received $75. organizations and the total amount received Maryland Student Legislature team were the more money to the SGA for allocations. Last Halloran said the SGA gave him three by service organizations. only organizations discussed, and allocations year, the SGA received $12,000 for alloca- reasons that his allocation was so low. Kelly felt the SGA was "sticking it" to were increased for both. tions.Although there was an extra $3000 this The first was that all the members were the service organizations. Their membership, The Hurling Club received $75 instead year, there is still not enough money. also members of the fraternity Phi Kappa he felt, was more open to the campus than of$40 because the assembly wanted to give Bartolomeo says that while everyone un- Sigma. cultural organizations. the new organization a chance even though derstands this problem, the school needs to The second explanation was that when President Steven Sharkey pointed out it was not active yet. Maryland Student Leg- look into increasing funding for student or- asked how much it would take to run an or- that if the BSU's allocation was subtracted islature was originally allocated $260. ganizations. ganization, Halloran replied "nothing." from Kelly'S calculations, the figures would -Because of the enormous expense the Several student organizations were con- Halloran feels that any organization that truly be very different. The BSU received the larg- club will have this semester while it plans a tacted for this story, and only a few replied. wants to exist can doso without funding from est allocation with $1950. leadership training institute for Maryland Carl Taylor, of the BSU, said that he was the SGA. When asked what the cultural organiza- college students, the body voted to increase pleased with the amount of money they re- The final explanation, that no paperwork tions planned to do with the money, treasurer the allocation to $315. ceived. had been filed yet, was false, Halloran said. Stephanie Knight replied that the organtza- Kelly, aware of his bias towards certain His main problem was with the amount The paperwork, he continued, was taken to tions wanted money to put on campus pro- organizations, asked that anyone with a of money the school gives the SGA for allo- College Activities more than a week before grams such as Diversity Day and to purchase vested interest in an organization abstain cations. the allocation interview. educational materials for the campus. from voting for their particular group. The Allies co-president Michael Baker was Halloran feels that the allocations process There were several reasons that service members complied with the request. also pleased with his group's allocation al- "ostracizes new organizations ... and favors ; organizations received less money overall, SGA members had mixed reactions to the though they had wanted more. well-established organizations." according to the executive board. allocations process as a whole. "What was upsetting for our organization Bartolomeo says that making the deci- I Most of the service organizations have Kelly and Burger were concerned by the and other organizations was the amount of sions on allocations is a "tough job." more money going into the process than cul- fact that the allocations voting and debate time to prepare proposals," Baker said. The He continued, "I can't wait to see what , tural organizations, Sharkey said. only took one meeting instead of two as in presidents' meeting was held on a Tuesday, the org~nizations are, going to do with the He also felt that service organizations did the past. and proposals were due that friday. Baker money not advertise projects or meetings to the en- Both commented on the unwillingness of tire campus, just to members. Kelly calls this the assembly to debate questions or concerns. "ridiculous." Service organizations work the Kelly is concerned about this new attitude same way as cultural organizations; "show of the SGA where the body is inclined to pass up to a meeting, and you are a member," "whatever the [executive] board puts up Kelly continued. . without thinking about it." Burger calls this Ise~:a:r~j~~:::iJ~~:~~~:~t ~:~:~:a~l:~ Jac~~~~oorn~~:~:'~~~;::~;a~:t!~·'~ennifer cations process, specifically the meeting with Haines and Brandi Holmes also felt that the the SGA executive board, as seriously as the allocations were not done well. "It was not cultural groups. The cultural groups, she said, run as smoothly as in past years," Haines "had ambition that service groups did not said. Holmes commented that the process have." They were also "more serious than was "shabbily run." any service group," she said. Haines felt that the process was unfair to Knight agreed, saying the cultural orga- some organizations and that the executive nizations "were impressive, very organized, board "played favorites." She further stated had dates, and work put in [their proposals]," that the process did not treat new groups The rest of the argument focused mainly fairly and would possibly discourage new on two points. groups from asking for money. The first was that of alternate funding. On the other hand, some of the SGA Kelly pointed out that the cultural organiza- members thought that allocations were run tions could get funding from Mary Grace fairly. Alamandrez, director of Multicultural Ser- According to Cline, the SGA executive vices, Sophomore class representative Erin board, Dean Sayre, and Mitchell Alexander, Collins countered that at least the affinity director of College Activities, spent three service groups could get money from Resi- hours trying to allocate the money "judi- dence Life Coordinator Shonda Wilson. ciously and fairly" to all the clubs that ap- Freshman representative Tierra Jolly said plied. "It's not that we played favorites," she that fund-raising would be more difficult for continued. Those organizations that received some of the cultural groups as compared 0 the most money showed a lot of "passion, the service groups. thought, and preparation" in their allocation The second argument was Kelly's con- proposals. tention that some of the cultural groups were Jamin Bartolomeo, sophomore class not as "proven" as service groups like president, felt that the voting went smoothly SERVE, STAY, and Unity. These three or- and had not heard complaints from any or- ganizations are strong with "good, solid pro- ganizations so far. "The [executive) board grams," he said. They have "really taken off made excellent decisions," he said. He also over the past four years," he continued. thought that the board was very careful to Matthew Burger, senior class represen- leave money for next semester's allocations. tative, furthered the argument. There is a Several SGA members felt that the pro- "tendency," Burger said, "to give more to the cess could be better. cultural groups." The SGA needed to look Burger feels that the current allocations more closely at each club's activities and guidelines, partofthe bylaws since last year, history rather than just giving groups money need to have additions. "We're trying to establish national because they are cultural. The current guidelines are: no money for nition of the honor society," As to the Vice president Amanda Cline responded charitable donations, no money for food at rure of the art history department, Losch quickly to what shecaJled "ignorant assump- regular meetings, no money for traveling believes that "if we remain a college dedi- nons." Cline stated that the cultural groups with exceptions, no money for speakers with. cated to the liberal arts and hiring qualified put on programs each month for the entire exceptions, and no money for academic people;' we can't help but grow."