Student org jilted, left paying the bill
Guardian
Editor:
We are writing in regards to the Nov. 20 issue’s “”A.S. Council at a Glance”” and the “”extensive discussion”” the A.S. Council had concerning the reallocation of funds for the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance’s upcoming event. As the president and vice president of the FMLA, we requested that funds that were already allocated to us for AV/Tech by the 2002-03 Student Organization Funding Advisory Board be reallocated to cover our extensive printing costs.
We no longer needed the $50 for AV/Tech that we had budgeted, and our event consists of an informational expo, in which we will host several educational booths on such issues as safe sex, emergency contraceptives and abortion. Consequently, the original $10 allocated to us by Student Organization Funding Allocation Board will hardly be adequate to cover these printing costs.
Unfortunately, we were unfairly denied this reallocation, and “”the [council’s] debate focused on a lack of a representative from the FMLA at the council meeting.””
First, the two of us were not able to attend the meeting because we both had a class at the time of the meeting. In lieu of our presence, we sent an e-mail to the A.S. vice president of finance explaining our request for reallocation of funds and apologizing for our absence at the meeting. Second, since apparently we were denied our request solely based on our lack of presence, we demand to know which bylaws require the presence of student organization members at requests for reallocation.
Third, we find it unfortunate that an A.S. Council made up of few student organization leaders has the right to deny an organization on campus the ability to put on a successful event without any substance to their denial.
If any of them were actually involved in all-campus organizations, they would understand the absurdity of attempting to put on an event with a mere $10 for printing that must cover teaser campaigns, flyers and quarter sheets for the event, not to mention educational pamphlets and handouts on five different feminist issues.
Thanks to a majority of the A.S. senators, we must, yet again, spend the $50 out of our pockets.
Interestingly, this apparently contentious issue of a simple reallocation of $50 was debated in the same council meeting that approved an allocation of $4,000 to the Muir College Council’s Muirstock. In a senate made up almost entirely of college council members that are not representative of all-student events and organizations, this is hardly surprising. Also interesting is how the council argued extensively over this (seemingly trivial) reallocation, yet less than a month ago, the same council “”adopted… a resolution supporting the construction of an on-campus interfaith center”” with the debate “”[lasting] less than 10 minutes.””
In other words, they debated between 20 and 30 minutes over our request for reallocation, while debating for less than 10 minutes over the potentially contentious issue of the separation of church and state.
As a student organization, we have come to question the integrity, the competence and the legitimacy of the current A.S. Senate.
We demand that they begin to represent the student body. On the other hand, we would like to express our gratitude to the members of the A.S. Council that have supported us in this: A.S. President Jeremy Paul Gallagher, A.S. Vice President External Harish Nandagopal and Commissioner of Enterprise Operations Jeremy Cogan.
We would also like to invite the student body to our event, “”The Third Wave of Feminism: Sex Expo”” on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Cross-Cultural Center. We will be welcoming speakers from Doctor Love’s who will discuss the history of sex and explain the uses of various sex toys, while hosting tables on reproductive rights and safe sex.
– Mary McQueen, President
– Sian Hillier, Vice-President Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance
