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USG president vetoes funding for two RSOs

Two Registered Student Organizations are up in arms after Undergraduate Student Government President Tequia Hicks vetoed bills for funding.

Hicks said she has reservations regarding some of the senate members' approval of funding requests made by Aviation Management Society and the Agricultural Mechanization Club. Those concerns, she said, will be discussed further at tonight's USG meeting.

One of the contested events was a career fair and dinner held Friday in the Student Center Ballrooms. Jeffrey Pelch, president of the Aviation Management Society, which sponsored the event, said his group first submitted funding forms for the event last spring.

Pelch, who is a senior studying aviation management, said group members met with USG's Finance Committee three weeks ago to discuss the event further. The senate, at its Oct. 13 meeting approved the bill allocating $3,252.06 for their $4,900 event.

Pelch said their event, which is annual and had been financed through USG before, draws between 300 to 400 people. It also had Steve Brown, senior vice president of operations for the National Business Aviation Association, as a keynote speaker.

"We thought we were good, that everything had been taken care of," Pelch said. "We just needed to pay back catering for the dinner."

But on Monday night, Pelch said his group found out that Hicks had vetoed the bill.

"We are up in arms because we just don't know why they told us that we had the money.

Where do you draw the line?" Pelch asked. "It just felt like we weren't getting the information we needed when we went to talk to USG."

The Agriculture Mechanization Club also had an Oct. 13 bill vetoed by Hicks. Devin Hochgraber, a senior studying agriculture business and economic and president of the organization, said the approval allowed the organization to use $7,581 for a cargo trailer, which would to be used to carry equipment to a June tractor building competition in Moline, Ill. The group also would have been given $1,438.17 for tractor parts and supplies.

The current trailer used by the Agriculture Mechanization Club was manufactured in 1972 and is considered "not safe for the road," said Dwayne Alward, vice president for the organization. Hochgraber said the group has requested USG funding for the cargo trailer for the past three years, because the College of Agriculture cannot purchase a trailer for them. He said renting a trailer, which could cost up to $1,000, would prove to be too expensive, since an owned piece would "pay for itself in a matter of time."

After visiting two finance meetings, Hochgraber went to get the equipment after the senate approved the bill two weeks ago. He said he was informed of the veto by a member of the Aviation Management Society.

"For all I knew, the money was there," said Hochgraber, who was going to pick up the trailer later this week. "Nobody contacted me from USG." Hicks said that passing of bills through the USG senate does not automatically mean that RSOs are guaranteed the money. Allocations forms are first brought to the Finance Committee and then brought to the senate vote as bills. If approved, they are given to the USG president for finalization.

"When I decide to veto, it is because I believe that there is something that we need to re-discuss," she said. "I only have the students in mind."

Hicks said USG plans to have a forum with members of various RSOs in order to discuss issues and questions about the allocation process. She said the meeting would occur later this semester.

 

 

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