The Syracuse University Debate Society has lost the remainder of its funding for the year from the Renée Crown University Honors Program and the College of Arts and Sciences. Its members were warned multiple times of the consequences of not following procedures.

Last year, the debate society struggled both to handle its finances and to work in compliance with various procedures, Kandice Salomone, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Eric Holzwarth, the deputy director of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, said in an email.

Since the society was under new leadership this year, the two gave the group a second chance at the beginning of this semester to follow procedures “efficiently and effectively,” but indicated that this would be a “trial year” for them, they said.

The budget for the debate society is traditionally $12,000, but this year the club was only funded $10,000, said Anthony Rini, treasurer of the Debate Society. The club had spent about $5,000 of its funding already this year when debate society president Kwang Lee Gan received a Nov. 12 email that officially revoked the remaining $5,000 of the club’s funding.

The society was held responsible for the estimated deficit from last year, said Rini, a junior international relations major. He added that $10,000 was the minimum amount of funding the club could receive and still fully function with its registration fees and travel costs.

Issues the club encountered last year included parking tickets issued to the honors van when the club traveled. Salomone and Holzwarth said the problems that arose last year with the debate society “involved thousands of dollars and many, many hours of staff time.”

The email gave three reasons as to why the club was being punished monetarily, Rini said. The reasons were that the society received parking tickets while using the honors van; that the van was taken by the society a day before it was registered to use; and that there were no honors students participating in the society. Rini denied the last reason.

“Many Honors student groups have used the van over the years and there have never been these kinds of problems – not even a parking ticket,” Salomone and Holzwarth wrote in the email. “Far from the exemplary behavior the Debate Society was told they had to demonstrate, this was sloppy and cavalier in the extreme.”

At this point the debate society is going to have to make do with limited resources, said Gan, a junior political science and English and textual studies major.

He added that the club is planning on traveling to various competitions with its own personal funds. The American Parliamentary Debate Association is giving the society cheaper registration fees, but the club will feel the consequences of the lost funding as fewer people will be able to travel to the debates on their own personal funds, he said.

“I’m not angry at all, I understand the administration has their reasons for this,” Gan said. “I am disappointed with my own failures as a president and I just hope that moving forward our team can recuperate from this loss and that we will be able to be as competitive as we always have.”

Salomone and Holzwarth said they would consider the return of the society’s funding for next year if the group reorganizes itself, but that at this time it needs to be recognized that actions have consequences.

Published on November 18, 2013 at 11:58 pm

Contact Kate: kacapoda@syr.edu