During last night’s four-hour-long meeting, the Associated Students Finance Board allocated $19,358 to 10 organizations.

The board fully funded requests by the Union Salvadorena de Estudiantes Universitarios; Santa Barbara Hillel; Queer Student Union; Lambda Theta Phi and UCSB Screenwriters Co-op, while partially funding the Students for Justice in Palestine; Chinese Student Scholars Association; Vietnamese Student Association; Hong Kong Student Association and Language, Interaction, and Social Organization.

USEU was among the student organizations receiving full funding at last night’s meeting. The group sought $2,000 to fund two guest speakers and an assembly featuring UCSB students who took a 10-day trip to El Salvador.

Finance Board member David Preciado said the event will help shed light on a current political crisis and underrepresented minority group.

“It’s really important to recognize that students on campus are still being affected by this [civil war],” Preciado said. “About 20 percent of the campus is Latino, but only one percent is Salvadorian. This allows voices that haven’t been heard to have an outlet.”

Habitat for Humanity was one of the few campus organizations whose request went unfunded. The group asked for $12,640 to fund a humanitarian trip to New Orleans

According to Treasurer Michelle Gerigk, a third-year microbiology and business economics major, 15 students will be chosen from UCSB to build houses in Louisiana over Spring Break.

Board member Desi Fairly said there was simply no room in the budget to fund this event, especially because on-campus events take precedence.

“In the past, Doctors Without Borders and this same event last year have received one-time exceptions for greater humanitarian efforts,” Fairly said. “We just can’t do that this year. Our budget just won’t allow it.”

The board also partially funded the 15th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction and Social Organization from May 14-16.

Board member Kelsey Fisher said the amount of money sought by the group was not equivalent to the number of students who would be in attendance for the event.

“This event only reaches out to 30 people,” Fisher said. “It’s a great deal of money if we look at how many people it caters to.”

Preciado, on the other hand, said the conference is a venue for undergraduate students to look into the possibility of attending graduate school.

“I understand the fact that it only attends to 30 folks, but keeping that in mind, a lot of departments have been cut,” Preciado said. “Graduate school is a big, important factor. There is not a lot of advocacy for it. This also affects the undergrads who might not necessarily know what to do with their life after college.”

The organization received $1,600.

Print