Syracuse University student organizations that did not receive funding from the Student Association are struggling to find the necessary funds to carry out events or print their publications.

Forty out of the 95 student groups that requested funding for spring semester were denied their requests by SA’s Finance Board. More than half of the student organizations that were not issued funds are minority groups.

Student organizations were required to submit budgets during the fall requesting funding for spring events. The Finance Board reviewed the budgets in November and determined which groups the money from the student fee should go to, said SA Comptroller Jeff Rickert.

Because the total amount requested last fall well exceeded the amount of money available to SA, there are very tight rules on how to allocate the funds, Rickert said. Many groups don’t receive money based on technicalities, he said.

The Finance Board received $1,283,285.72 in requests and only had $757,717.51 available, according to a copy of the budget obtained by The Daily Orange.

Rickert said that most of the minority groups were not funded because the majority of the groups that applied for funding fell into the category of minority groups.

‘There’s a lot of misconception,’ he said. ‘It’s not just like the Finance Board says, ‘We don’t like you, so we’re not going to give you this money.”

Rickert said he wants to develop a student survey that will help the Finance Board determine what events and publications SU students want to see funded. Had the board not been under such difficult budget constraints last semester, he said, the spring funding may have turned out differently.

The Student African-American Society is struggling to find money to host the organization’s spring lecture, an event it has hosted since 1967.

SAAS requested money for three speakers: Hill Harper, Gabrielle Union and Ryan Leslie. The group also requested money to attend the 15th annual Black Solidarity Conference held at Yale University. None of the requests were granted.

Nyuma Njie, a junior information studies major and president of SAAS, said she was shocked and upset when the group did not receive funding for the spring events. She said the Finance Board told the organization it did not receive some money because the speakers were not confirmed. The group eventually did receive confirmation from Harper, and members brought the budget to appeals but still did not receive funding, she said.

‘We were the first black organization to be established (on campus), and every other organization derived from us,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t make sense to me. How can we be the first organization on campus and not be able to hold any events? It doesn’t make sense to me or any of the students of color on this campus.’

SAAS is now applying for funding through the Co-Curricular Grant and the Graduate Student Association. The Co-Curricular Grant only funds up to $5,000, a substantial difference from the $61,756.71 requested. The group is reworking the original plans and will possibly get a new speaker for the spring lecture if there is not enough money for Harper, Njie said.

‘A lot of people are upset about it. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to get ourselves back up and running again,’ she said.

Students organizations that have been denied funding may seek it from special programming, the Co-Curricular Grant and miscellaneous funds, said Lily Mei, SA’s previous comptroller, in an e-mail interview.

‘There are still funds available on campus, so every group still has an opportunity to receive funding,’ Mei said. ‘I understand the frustration student groups may have, but you have to see it from a board’s perspective.’

The Black Voice, a magazine focusing on African-American issues, also did not receive money for printing from SA. Williams said the Finance Board told the organization it failed to prove the costs.

Along with speaker confirmation, failure to prove why an event or publication costs what it does is the biggest reason budgets get cut, Rickert said.

The Black Voice switched from a newspaper to a magazine this year and was hoping to put out two issues each semester, said Timeka Williams, the publication’s editor-in-chief and a senior magazine journalism and international relations major. It received funding for the fall semester but was unable to publish due to other complications, Williams said.

The publication was able to keep money from the fall semester to put toward the spring, which they did not receive any money for, Williams said. Because they did not receive any money for the spring semester, they only have enough money to publish one issue, she said.

‘I’m disappointed because there is no other publication on campus like The Black Voice, and in the issue that’s coming out we address the fact that we weren’t funded,’ she said.

Syracuse University’s chapter of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) wanted to hold a week dedicated to celebrating Hispanic journalists, featuring a speech from hip-hop DJ Angie Martinez, said Ghislaine Leon, NAHJ president and a junior information studies major.

NAHJ was forced to choose a new speaker, Leon said, because the Finance Board said it did not feel the speaker would interest 75 percent of the student body.

While it is not stated in the Finance Board’s codes that events must appeal to 75 percent of the student body, the board was under such tight constraints that it didn’t want to fund events that the majority of the student body wouldn’t be interested in attending, Rickert said.

NAHJ submitted a new request during budget appeals to bring author Christopher Rodriguez to campus, Leon said. The group originally requested $20,383.20 for Martinez. Through appeals, $979 was received for Rodriguez, $43 less than what was requested. The organization will apply for the remainder of the money through special programming and do its own fundraising for the rest of the week, she said.

Student organizations can apply for special programming money if they submit their budget six weeks before a planned event, Rickert said. Organizations cannot resubmit their budgets from the fall though, he said. The special programming request must be different in some way from the original budget that was already denied funding, he said.

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on January 25, 2010 at 12:00 pm