This Wednesday, the Student Finance Board (SFB) passed a motion 13-0-1 to give the Protestant Bible Fellowship the $98.90 it requested to buy an additional set of communion plates.
A motion was also passed 14-0 to give PEANUTS full funding, $1,160, for its Broadway musical trip to see "Stomp."
As of this semester, Ravi Kaneriya, representative at-Large, resigned from his SFB position. Students of any year can now apply for the position by picking up an application in SFB's office, Room 231 of Brower Student Center.
SFB had more funding requests at its last meeting of the Fall semester.
Board members unanimously passed a motion to fully fund the College Union Board (CUB), Uni?n Latina and Lambda Sigma Upsilon fraternity's $2,644 request to put on a play entitled "Pl?tanos & Collard Greens."
The event will take place in April as part of the Latino Awareness Celebration.
Board members also unanimously passed a motion to fully fund the $7,960 requested by the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) to bring Kwame Jackson from television's "The Apprentice" to campus today.
A motion was also passed 15-0 to give CUB board members $1,059.40, full funding to bring their advisor, Tim Asher, with them to the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) conference in Boston next month.
The Bowling Club requested $4,098 to attend the national Coca-Cola Collegiate Classic competition. As in the past, board members were torn about how to handle yet another conference request.
This time, however, a discussion was raised over whether or not seniors would be allowed to attend the conference, as SFB policy states that seniors cannot attend conferences in the Spring semester.
Board members agreed that in this particular case, seniors should be allowed to attend.
"I don't think this uniform policy (regarding seniors) applies to sports," Steve Viola, Student Government Association (SGA) liaison to the SFB, said. "How can you be competitive if you don't send your best players?"
The board unanimously passed a motion to suspend the by-laws and send seniors to the conference.
Funding was a more difficult matter to approach, but ultimately board members followed the policy of either giving organizations half of what they request for funding conferences, or simply providing $50 a head.
SFB chose to give $50 for each member attending, giving the Bowling Club $350 for seven students. The motion passed 9-6.
The Inter-Greek Council (IGC) requested funding for the regional Northeast Greek Leadership Association Conference. IGC requested that members of both IGC and the Panhellenic Council attend the conference, which agitated board members because the Panhellenic Council is not an SFB-funded organization.
"We should only fund members of the IGC e-board," Omar Selim, junior representative for SFB, said.
A motion was made and passed 10-5 to give IGC $50 a head for four people, half of the amount of people originally requested to attend.
Sankofa requested funding to hold their closing ceremony for Black History Month "Celebrating Community: A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions" on March 1.
Board members cited this event, one complete with singing and stepping, as valuable to the College community. "Overall, I feel like this is a really good request," Erica Klazmer, sophomore representative for SFB, said.
A motion was passed 12-0 to fully fund the event for $1,040.
All College Theatre (ACT) requested a budget for its Spring 2006 production costs, money the organization usually would have received at the SFB budget retreat.
As SFB has allocated ACT this money in the past, board members passed a motion 9-3 to fully fund the organization $6,028.60.
The Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) requested funding to bring in activist David Zirin to speak about sports and resistance in relation to the Iraq War.
The board passed a motion 12-0 to fully fund the request for $450.
The Signal also requested funding to use the Associated Press Wire for its Nation & World section of the paper.
Board members agreed that the addition of national and global news to the College's paper was a good idea and allocated $540.
"They want to have students read about what's going on in the country," Pratt said. "And let's be honest: The Signal is the only newspaper I read."
Board members passed a motion 12-0 to fully fund the $540 request.
The Minority Report, an organization wishing to start a conservative newspaper separate from The Signal, requested money to fund advertisements and articles for its online edition.
Although some board members felt the organization could be incorporated into The Signal, other members disagreed.
"The Signal is more of a general newspaper," Pratt said. "They want a newspaper centered completely on politics and there really isn't a large voice for conservative students. I don't deny that."
The board passed a motion 11-0 to cut the amount of copies requested in half and give the Minority Report $194.
