At its Oct. 19 meeting, the Student Finance Board (SFB) passed motions to fully fund the College Union Board (CUB)'s request to invite famed director Kevin Smith to speak at the College and provide CUB members with staff shirts for the Gavin DeGraw concert.
CUB's request for funding to bring Smith, director of "Dogma," and "Mallrats" among other movies, to the College was an easy decision for SFB, whose members all agreed if Smith came, the event would be successful.
The motion to fully fund CUB's $28,580 request was passed 15-0. If Smith accepts the bid, the event will take place sometime in March.
CUB also requested staff shirts for DeGraw's concert to comply with the requirement that student security workers are identifiable during events.
SFB has funded the staff shirts for CUB for each of its events, leading some members to question why CUB could not simply buy generic staff shirts to be reused.
While CUB argued that non-staff persons could use the shirts, some board members believed that the organization could identify itself by another, less expensive means.
A motion for full funding, $210, was passed with the stipulation that these shirts would not be personalized for the DeGraw concert.
The Men's Club Soccer team received partial funding of the $450 it requested for an entrance fee to play in its regional tournament, a cost the team paid for over the summer.
SFB, however, does not fund events or conferences that have already been paid for.
"We are open over the summer, and if something happens, you can get in contact with us," Julia Pratt, executive director of SFB, said.
The board, however, passed a motion to suspend bylaws with a vote of 10-5 in order to pass a motion on funding. It passed a motion 9-5-1 to give Men's Club Soccer $225, half of the initial amount requested.
Problems arose again, however, when SFB tackled yet another conference request - which it eventually partially funded - this time for the American Medical Student Assocation (AMSA).
The precedent set by SFB has been to spend $50 per person for five or fewer students, or to fund half of the conference request. AMSA requested to send 20. At $50 a person, $1,000 would have been spent on AMSA alone.
Motions of $600, $1,000, $500 and again of $600 all failed because several board members asked if it would be truly necessary to send 20 students to the conference when five students could go and bring back what they learned to the organization.
Other members added that each conference should be looked at individually.
"Every conference request should be weighed on its merits," Steve Viola, Student Government Association (SGA) liaison to the SFB, said. Conferences should be judged on "what the conference is, what (it's) bringing back and what (students) will learn," Viola said.
In an effort to be consistent, the board passed the fifth motion 9-5-1 to give AMSA $250, $50 for five people to attend the conference.
The Korean American Student Association's $60 request for fliers for its screening of "Seoul Train," a documentary, was not funded because the organization had already printed the fliers at an outside retailer.
"If you book it, if you buy it, we're not paying for it," Pratt said. "If you can buy it, we know you have the money to pay for it."
The motion for zero funding passed 13-1-1.
The Inter Greek Council (IGC) received full funding for its request to hold an on-campus Greek Leadership Conference geared toward students in Greek Life as well as the College community as a whole.
While board members said they saw the value in the campus conference, others thought the non-Greek portion of the College community may not attend.
IGC, however, is an organization open to all students, and one of the speakers requested for the conference, Paul Chabot - who has worked for former President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush - will speak in general about leadership.
The non-exclusivity of IGC, Chabot and the potential value of conference to the College prompted the majority of the board to vote in favor of fully funding the $4,842.50 with the stipulation that IGC would definitely host Chabot.
SFB also agreed to provide funding for "The Goods," an annual student arts festival sponsred by 'ink' that members agreed has been, in the past, an enjoyable and typically successful event.
A motion to fully fund "The Goods" for $1,078 passed 15-0.
