On Monday, Sept. 16, the Student Assembly (SA) convened to vote on funding requests from student organizations to begin the process of allocating its budget to the College’s many student groups. According to the minutes from the meeting, “Student Assembly funding comes from a combination of all students’ annual activity fees.”
All requests submitted by the Sept. 13 deadline were considered during an eleven-hour Funding Committee meeting on Sept. 15.
According to SA President Amanda Kim, the SA budget of $80,913.53 (with a strategic budget of $57,774.19) “seems smaller this semester because of some reorganizing of the Student Activities budget.”
The total funds requested by all clubs amounted to $120,967.58. Total strategic funding for the semester as recommended by the Funding Committee totaled $54,156.31.
During the meeting, clubs including League of Legends Club, History Club, and Philanthropy Committee were not considered due to late submissions.
For League of Legends Club, the delay was due to technical difficulties and the motion to fund the $6,459.90 as recommended passed unanimously. There was a discussion about installing the game on computers in the Kirner-Johnson building and whether or not these computers should exclusively be used for academic purposes.
Feminist of Color Collective’s request for $4,930 passed unanimously after SA discussed whether or not to fund the organization’s request to accomodate an alumni guest.
On The Move’s request for $1,001.01 in funding was approved unanimously as well. On The Move is a club whose main goal is to strengthen the relationship between Utica’s refugee population and Hamilton. According to the club’s co-president Emma Ritz ’20, their funding request was mainly informed by food needs for the group’s fashion show for international students on campus.
SA debated whether or not to provide Scottish Country Dancing Club with the funding to purchase shoes after club members explained that the footwear is necessary to prevent injury and not all students have the resources to make this purchase independently. The motion to approve $369.48 for the team was approved.
Due to potential conflicts with the Funding Code, requests for funding by a cappella groups were tabled for further discussion.
This year, SA funding decisions resonated beyond the weekly meeting and grew into a larger campus issue with the appearance of posters around campus on Friday, Oct. 4. The posters detailed a student complaint, questioning why certain organizations were refused funding while SA purchased quarter-zips for their members, with the poster maker implying that this money was being misused.
Addressing the controversy, Kim said she met with the individual who put up the posters, who wishes to remain anonymous. Kim explained that the budget used to purchase the quarter-zips, which comes from a discretionary fund, is separate from the non-strategic budget used to fund student organizations. This discretionary fund is not subject to the same funding codes as the student organization budget, and is therefore set aside for SA to use at its discretion.
After this meeting, Kim reported back to SA that the student apologized to SA and took down the posters.
