At its last meeting, the Student Finance Board (SFB) voted to fully fund the upcoming College Union Board (CUB) Spring Concert, originally featuring Ben Folds. However, Ben Folds rejected the College's bid, forcing CUB to present SFB with new options for bands.
One option presented would feature Augustana, Mae and Copeland performing together. This would cost a total of $41,300. The other possibilities discussed included Michelle Branch, The Wreckers or Matt Nathanson.
"I'm leery of giving so much to a concert," Blair Gumnic, Student Government Association (SGA) assistant representative, said. "Augustana . might not have a big following."
Though it was suggested that the ticket price be lowered from $15 to $10 since the bands are not well known, it was agreed that having more than one artist perform at the concert could draw more people.
SFB voted 13-1 to allocate the $41,300.
CUB requested $7,648.50 for Globalpalooza, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 21. The event is billed as a "large-scale multicultural festival" and will include food, activities and dance lessons representing different countries, according to CUB.
"We want to incorporate all the organizations on campus," event coordinator Katerina Gkionis said. The event will involve 30 student organizations on campus. Greek organizations were paired with a non-Greek organization and each pair picked a country to represent at Globalpalooza.
"We want to make this a tradition at (the College)," event coordinator Annie Raczko said, referring to the amount of effort being put into the event and the advertising in The Trentonian.
Though the event received support, SFB members were concerned about advertising off campus and essentially feeding off campus people. Therefore, they decided to fully fund the event without the off-campus ads.
The Gospel Choir Ministries (GCM) presented regarding its Spring Break Tour. The tour is essentially a networking service and donations program by the ministries. GCM had presented on the same event several weeks ago and had been disappointed by receiving $2,000, according to the presentation.
According to president LaToya Wynn, GCM was unaware that a tour is considered a conference, as the year before SFB had deemed it a special appropriations request. Since conference requests have different stipulations and are not usually funded as highly as other on-campus events, members of GCM realized that they would be have to do more fundraising themselves. They requested $5,505 from SFB.
SFB considered suspending the bylaws and allocating more money, giving the organization no increase in funding or viewing it as a special appropriations request.
"We don't want to make this a special apps.," Steven Oliveira, financial director, said. "We're paying for their Spring Break . so I find it very difficult to give them a lot more than $2,000."
"I think it's very heartless to not give them more money," Dan Beckelman, SGA representative, said. "We should show some appreciation for all the fundraising and work they've brought in."
Sophomore representative Leo Acevedo said it was not the duty of SFB to reward and punish organizations based on fundraising.
A motion was put forward to compromise and allocate half of the requested $5,505. The motion to fund $2,752.50 was passed 11-3.
Uni?n Latina gave a presentation regarding Latin Awareness Celebration Month, held during the month of April. The events would include food, shows and poetry.
"I think since it's all estimates and it's in April, we shouldn't fund it now," Omar Selim, operations director, said.
Eventually, SFB unanimously came to the conclusion that it would fund $7,811 out of the requested $14,111, to cover the events that were considered more successful and cost-effective.
Bod Squad requested $2,460 for "Andrea's Voice," a presentation by career educators who founded the Eating Disorder Prevention Foundation. The event, scheduled for Monday, April 2 in Brower 202E, will discuss preventing eating disorders. However, there is currently no time set for the event. Therefore, SFB decided the event must occur in the evening after classes. SFB decided to fully fund it 11-2.
