In a three-hour meeting, the Associated Students Finance Board dispersed $31,606.46 to 12 organizations and considered instituting a ban on one student group.

The board fully funded requests by the Black Graduation Committee, Sex and Relationships internship, Model United Nations and Men Against Rape, while partially funding the Environmental Affairs Board, Black Student Union, Students Teaching Alcohol and Drug Responsibility, UCSB Wellness Program, Healthy Eating and Living, Chicana/o Latina/o Graduation Committee, Indian Undergraduate Student Body and Cotillion Dance Club.

Board members discussed banning the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws from receiving funding for a year because one of the group members casually mentioned pocketing a couple of hundred dollars of profit from a previous Finance Board-funded event.

“This is exactly the kind of things we have problems with,” board member Desi Fairly said. “We give money in good faith and this happens, unless he was wrong and threw himself under the bus for no reason.”

The board decided to table the matter for further investigation.

Model United Nations was among the student groups the board gave full funding to at last night’s meeting. The academic organization sought money to send 10 student delegates to the WorldMUN Conference held in The Hague, Netherlands.

Darshan Grover, a member of both Finance Board and MUN, said that by attending, UCSB will be on the same playing field as the most prestigious universities in the world.

“This will showcase UCSB’s talent and it’s an exciting opportunity to go and better the image of our school, not just on a national level, but on a global level as well. … UCSB will be represented as one of the top 50 schools in the country, one of the top 100 schools in the world,” Grover said.

Additionally, Students Teaching Alcohol and Drug Responsibility received partial funding for Safe Spring Break 2009 — a week of events designed to address issues faced by students during spring break.

External Committee member Cristina Gutierrez, a fourth-year Spanish major, said the event is intended to promote “safe fun” during break.

“The goal is to get awareness to students on how they can be safe and take care of their friends during Spring Break while having fun,” Gutierrez said.

Meanwhile, Environmental Affairs Group requested $7,620 to attend Power Shift ’09 — a national student conference in Washington DC concerning climate change solutions. At the last Finance Board meeting, EAB Treasurer Jill Tiegs said 16 UCSB students will be among the 10,000 students expected to attend from across the country.

“The youth of this country are demanding environmentally conscious policies,” Tiegs said. “We will engage with Congress members to draw up a healthy renewable energy policy. This is also a great opportunity for environmentally conscious youth to network with each other.”

At yesterday’s meeting, however, board member Pratish Patel said that although the board wished to send as many students to the conference as possible, funding the event would eliminate one-tenth of the quarter’s budget.

“I’m torn,” Patel said. “There’s $71,000 in unallocated; this is seven grand. I really want to send you all, I really want to fund this, but I don’t know if there’s room in our budget per se.”

Ultimately, EAB received $3,810.