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RSOs still awaiting funding from USG

Undergraduate Student Government President Tequia Hicks has one piece of advice for Registered Student Organizations waiting for requested funds from the USG: please be patient.

Last spring, the USG suffered from an irresponsible finance chairwoman, who was removed from the committee. In turn, Hicks said the chairwoman removed RSO funding requests from USG records.

"She got upset, grabbed all her finance forms and left," Hicks said. "That was where we got this issue of lost forms."

The committee lost access to more than 100 finance request forms in the spring and had to e-mail all of the RSOs and ask them to re-submit their forms.

"What happened this last year screwed us up and we're playing catch up," Hicks said.

To begin solving the problem, the USG finance committee first focused on "umbrella organizations" of RSOs. "Umbrella organizations" are large organizations that are required to have at least 10 RSOs networking with them. A main purpose of these RSO collectives is to serve as a central body for RSOs with similar interests.

The Black Affairs Council, Hispanic Student Council, Inter-Greek Council, and International Student Council are a few examples of these "umbrella" organizations.

For the smaller RSOs, a summer AD-HOC was created. It is a temporary amendment to the USG constitution and was proposed in reaction to the 100 missing fee-allocation forms last spring, which held requests from RSOs for program funding. The amendment allows a summer committee to allocate funds for RSOs.

Nichole Boyd, a member of the Native American Indian Organization, re-applied for funding as soon as she got the e-mail in late April stating that the forms had been lost. She said she was well prepared to meet with the committee to discuss the $31,000 requested by her organization. Boyd believes the sum is accurate due to the fact that last year the group's annual event, Indigenous People's Day, cost $28,000.

"We pulled in 3,000 people just for that one event," Boyd said. "We got the mayor of Carbondale to say that it was no longer Columbus Day, that it was Indigenous People's Day."

Last year, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the Black Affairs Council and the Student Center helped the Native American Indian Organization with the event's funding. Costs covered two Native American drumming groups, a Native American band, a Native American comedian, hotel rooms, airplane flights and a guest speaker.

The summer AD-HOC approved the organization for $7,500, although this amount is not yet guaranteed.

The Saluki Rainbow Network met with the committee June 30 to discuss funds for Coming Out Week, which is held in October.

The money would go toward events and the main cost would be for a speaker. The SRN asked for $8,200 for the event and does not know yet if its request will be granted.

Coming Out Week was established in 1987 as a time for gays and lesbians to openly announce and accept their sexual orientation. This week is sponsored by the SRN and has been celebrated at SIUC for several years. Last year's event included painting the Pride Rocks, participating in the Homecoming parade and a Coming Out dance.

SRN co-director Leah Reinert said the amount requested by the organization is based on past experiences. Reinert said they look at past events and see if that amount was right, not enough or too much.

Any RSO can apply for spring allocations if they need funds before Oct. 15, or if they have an annual event. The form is seen by the USG finance committee, whose members vote on it and then send it to the senate. If it is approved by the senate, it is passed on to Hicks. Finally, it goes to Student Development.

USG Vice President Nate Brown said he and the rest of the student government are working their best to judge the appropriate amounts of funding for each RSO.

"Any time you're talking about money, especially a large amount of student money, there's a matter of legitimacy," Brown said. "Everybody does their best. This group and really any of the finance committees I've seen has really understood their obligation to the students to make sure that no one group is getting an absorbent amount of money."