Alex Nagase/Daily Nexus
The Associated Student Finance and Business Committee met yesterday evening at the State Street Room in the UCen to hear requests from 18 student organizations for funding.
During the meeting, the committee decided to fully fund 12 organizations, did not fund one request, tabled two requests and partially funded three requests. Discussion items included the introduction and approval of a new process for distributing honoraria, or monetary compensation, for Program Board officers. Other discussion items included honoraria bill for the Commission on Disability Equality (CODE) that was tabled indefinitely for consideration by the honoraria committee, and a bill to further availability and access of information in A.S. elections code, which was passed.
Requests granted by the committee included $450 to the University Affairs Committee for honoraria for three student members, $250 for the External Affairs Committee, $75 for the On Campus Senator’s event focused on healthy, productive study foods from the Isla Vista Co-op, $10,550 for the Black Graduates group, $3,840 for La Famille de Colores for tickets and flights for an upcoming conference, $4,000 for the Impact Movement’s national conference in Chicago, $147 for Vocal Motion a cappella group’s fall concert, $80 for Delta Sigma Zeta’s scantrons and bluebooks for a group study session, $400 for the Catalyst Literary Art Magazine third issue launch party, specifically for publicity purposes, to provide propane to keep their upcoming event area warm as well as to provide sculpture transportation.
The Asian American Christian group EPIC requested and was approved to receive $3,000 for an annual conference held in Orange County at the Doubletree Hotel.
Officer for EPIC and fourth-year student Esther Euseon said they needed funding because of their particularly large group this year.
“We are actually, this year, the largest Christian Asian-American organization on campus,” Euseon said. “We love it when anybody comes to our events.”
Finance and Business Committee member and second-year history of public policy major Izeah Garcia said EPIC is very inclusive as a Christian organization, unlike other religious groups on campus.
“”I’ve been to Epic and I’m not Protestant or Christian, in that sense I am Catholic, and honestly they’re pretty chill,” Garcia said. “When organizations say ‘Oh yeah we’re very inclusive,’ it’s hard for people to think they can get into those spaces, but I think with specifically religious organizations they try to make it so they’re as inclusiveness possible.”
The Art Club requested money for two different events, totaling $1,750, but both were tabled. Representatives from the club will attempt to get money from the Art Department before re-requesting from the Finance Board.
The Cheer Team also received funding for registration as well as lodging for the USA Nationals competition in Anaheim and a separate competition in Atlanta. The delegated amount was $2,750 out of the $16,780 the team had requested for transportation for future cheer competitions.
One of Cheer Team’s captains and third-year film and media studies major Nick Gorton-Bufano said this is the first time since 2003 that the team has had both females and males.
“This is the first year that we’ve been coed since 2003, so that’s cool,” Gorton-Bufano said. “And we gained a lot of support at basketball games from people because we’re co-ed. So we are trying to grow the co-ed aspect as well.”
Model United Nations also requested $7,332 for extra transportation and housing for their annual Berkeley conference, and received $1,426 to pay for registration fees.
UCen UStudy, a service that keeps the UCen open for longer than average hours during finals week, received $700 of the $1,085 they asked for to pay for building management to keep Corwin Pavilion open from 1 a.m. – 6 a.m. and to pay for a massage therapist. The Excursion Club received $950 of the $2,750 they requested for I.V. First Fridays, a new events series made to draw people away from Del Playa Drive and the house party scene to provide a large scale source of entertainment in through a variety of activities in I.V., held on the first Friday of every month.
[Correction: A prior version of this article incorrectly quoted Izeah Garcia as saying ““I’ve been to EPIC and I’m not Protestant or Catholic and honestly they’re pretty chill.” Garcia actually said “I’ve been to Epic and I’m not Protestant or Christian in that sense I am Catholic.” The article has been updated accordingly.]
