Jessica Santana went to the Student Association meeting Monday night to tell the Assembly she did not understand its decision to deny funding to an event planned by her organization, Los Colores. Because she was upset with the board’s decision, she had to leave the room in the middle of the meeting to keep from crying in front of the Assembly.

“I’m not angry because I do understand that SA has a financial vision that they want all student organizations to abide by,” said Santana, president of Los Colores. “But I am disappointed because this university prides itself on scholarship in action.”

The Assembly voted on appeals at Monday night’s meeting. During the appeals process, groups denied funding last week could reapply for a piece of the money that was left. At the meeting, representatives from both Los Colores and Hillel Jewish Student Union expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the Finance Board’s decision to deny their organizations money for events they had hoped to hold next fall.

Los Colores requested $2,764.49 for its event titled “Palante Mi Gente,” which means “Moving Forward My People.” The event is meant to serve as a motivational conference for sophomore and junior Latino students at Sowler High School because they have the lowest graduation rate in Syracuse, said Lisa DeLaRosa, university relations chair of Los Colores.

Santana said she felt her event should be funded because similar events held by other organizations had been funded in the past.

The Finance Board did not fund the event because it said that the event would not benefit the whole SU community, according to SA’s budget packet that contained its decisions. But Santana said the Finance Board did not read the budget proposal correctly, and the event was open to any SU student. She also said the event was unique because there is a large Latino community on Syracuse’s West Side, but there aren’t many initiatives to help the students in that area.

Los Colores was not the only organization discontent about the Finance Board’s decisions. Matthew Wolfe said he could not believe his organization, Hillel, was denied funding for a 60th anniversary concert for the second time.

“I’m just here, upset, because after last Monday’s meeting I walked out of here with the impression that if we were to appeal and that if we were to cut down our budget, that we would get some kind of money,” he said.

In honor of Hillel’s 60th anniversary at Syracuse University, the organization originally requested $77,000 to hold a concert in Goldstein Auditorium in the fall. The Finance Board did not fund the event because it does not provide funding of more than $70,000 for events in Goldstein. Although Hillel appealed with a revised request of $45,000, the Finance Board still did not fund the event.

The Finance Board had $57,450.98 available for appeals and gave out a total of $33,107.37. Although Hillel appealed with a lower cost, its event was not funded through appeals because the amount requested took up 80 percent of the available money, according to SA’s budget packet that contained its decisions.

“It’s just that the Finance Board didn’t really look into what this event was as much as they looked at it as a price tag attached to it,” Wolfe said.

Assembly representatives had conflicting thoughts on Hillel’s situation, with some thinking the Finance Board made the right decisions and others thinking Hillel deserved the money.

“While $45,000 is a lot of money, there was almost $25,000 left at the end of the appeal,” said Eugene Law, a representative of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. “I feel they should have gotten something. I feel they shouldn’t be just turned down again.”

David Woody, chair of SA’s Student Engagement committee, said the Finance Board cannot be expected to provide a portion of money for an event with hopes that the organization will get the rest.

There is not enough money in special programming to provide the organization with the amount it needs in order to make this event happen the way it is envisioned, Wolfe said.

“Hillel doesn’t want to compromise an event of this capacity to just have an event,” he said. “We want this event to be big. We don’t want it to be some run-of-the-mill concert.”

Hillel was considering talents such as The Roots and Passion Pit for the event that would have been held in the fall, he said. Hillel will apply for funding in the fall in order to hold the event in spring 2011.

“I absolutely — 100 percent — I will make sure that this thing goes into the next budget cycle,” Wolfe said. “I will make it a personal goal to do so.”

 

Published on April 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille