Representatives from various student organizations filled Maxwell Auditorium Monday night to learn how much money they will receive from Student Association.

In each SA budget season, the Finance Board evaluates the budgets presented by the student organizations that request funding for publications or events. For the spring semester, the Finance Board had $757,717.51 to distribute among student organizations.

At Monday’s meeting, SA Comptroller Lily Mei and Parliamentarian Robel Yemiru presented the finished budget, which detailed how much money each organization will receive. The assembly debated, and ultimately passed, each proposed budget.

Some organizations received full, partial or no funding. University Union was allocated the most funds, and more than 100 recognized student organizations didn’t receive any funding.

The funding of university-sponsored campus publications proved to be a controversial issue Monday night. The university-sponsored publications have received the same amount of funding for the past three budget seasons.

This precedent hinders the ability of publications to grow and diversify, said Neal Casey, SA chief of staff. ‘These organizations deserve to grow as a magazine or a publication,’ he said.

Publications receive the same amount of funding as the previous year because the Finance Board has no way to determine which publications are growing and increasing readership, said Lily Mei, SA comptroller.

But it should be the Finance Board’s responsibility to evaluate the publications’ success, said Tyrone Shaw, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee.

‘I think we’re stifling print media on this campus, and I don’t think that’s the image we want,’ Shaw said.

Representatives from the Student Voice and La Voz said they were satisfied with the funding they received and did not wish the bill to be reevaluated by the finance board.

In this budget season, SA could not do anything to evaluate the publications. But the Finance Board will work to put together an evaluation system that will allow some publications to expand in the future, Mei said.

Funding to each publication cannot be changed without going back to the Finance Board for reevaluation, Mei said. But if a publication reapplies for funding, it risks losing some funding, Mei said.

Most organizations that did not receive funding did not receive any because of technical violations on their budget applications, Mei said. These organizations can appeal their case to the finance board, which has set aside $70,000 to fund organizations that appeal.

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm