In a two-and-a-half-hour meeting last night, the Associated Students Finance Board dispensed $10,692.20 to six clubs.

The board fully funded requests from Students Stopping Rape and Students Teaching Alcohol and Drug Responsibility, while partially funding Alpha Phi Alpha, Raagmala, Muslim Student Association and Student Veterans at UCSB.

Alpha Phi Alpha requested funds to support two of its upcoming events – A Voteless People is a Hopeless People and Jamming Jokes. The first event promotes educating voters, while Jamming Jokes is a stand-up comedy event set to be held at the UCen Hub.

Alpha Phi Alpha Secretary Jamahdi Blueford, a third-year political science and black studies major, said Voteless People is a Hopeless People would educate students and provide them with the information needed to vote intelligently.

“This event started in 1930s,” Blueford said. “It was a national initiative by the fraternity to get African Americans to register to vote [and] to combat the erroneous mechanisms at the time. We are going to include all communities on campus and the event is really about voter information. Students need to get information on all the candidates out there.”

Some board members felt that the $206.88 fee for laminated posters was too high and either needed to be cut down or eliminated, which prompted a lengthy discussion.

Board member David Preciado said the board needs to exercise caution when considering slicing groups’ requests.

“We keep cutting down these budgets just because we think they’re too much,” Preciado said. “There’s a reason that they seek the set amount of funding that they do. We should ask them exactly why they want the sum instead of just slashing the budget.”

The fraternity received $1,015.88 out of a requested $1,515.88 for VPHP, while their second request for $726.88 was tabled due to the fact the organization intended to charge an entrance fee for Jamming Jokes.

The graduate student Indian music group Raagmala returned to Finance Board last night after being denied funding at last week’s meeting. In response, the organization cut their request by almost half and decided to give all proceeds to Asha, an organization dedicated to aiding underprivileged children in India.

Raagmala secretary Karthik Jayaraman said the group wanted to apologize for calling on Finance Board to provide the entire event fee last week, and had therefore found additional funding.

“It would be a matter of pride for Raagmala and UCSB if we pulled off the concert,” Jayaraman said. “We are doing our best to gather as much funds as possible. We even found a generous donor who agreed to match funding within $4,500. This is also a good opportunity to do fundraising for Asha and help the underprivileged children in India.”

The group received $4,999 from a requested $6,000.

The board also debated whether or not to make a “one-time exception” on the $500 cap set for food funding. According to A.S. Financial Policies and Procedures, each organization is allowed one exception per year and MSA asked the board to use theirs for their dinner event meant to celebrate the end of fasting for Ramadan.

Board member Jackie Lee said the exception should be made because food is the event’s foundation.

“[Having a Ramadan celebration without food] would be like having Thanksgiving without food,” Lee said. “The event falls apart without the centerpiece. Yes, food is food in every culture, but this specific event revolves around it.”

The board granted MSA the one-time exception and the group received $1,280 out of a possible $1,900.