By Dolly Goyal
The Latin American Student Organization (LASO) is in the process of planning a banquet to honor Northeastern’s service workers.
However, while the preliminary details for the banquet are set, LASO President Gilberto Osorio said the group is having problems getting an estimated $8,000 to fund the event from the Budget Review Committee (BRC).
“It’s not that much in the grand scheme of things, if you think about it,” Osario said. “The BRC allocated $195,000 for [a Springfest concert] and they’ve spent $40,000 for comedians before.”
The BRC however, has a different stance on LASO’s proposal. As listed in the Student Activities Fee manual, under the definitions of appropriate spending, food is not funded by the BRC. LASO’s proposal is not in accordance with BRC policy, BRC Chair Michael Benson said.
“The majority of their request was food,” Benson said. “We’d be happy to pay for everything but the food, but we felt the program would not happen without the food.”
Osorio said this year’s banquet would include keynote speaker Felix Arroyo, Boston’s first Latino City Councilor, and performances by students. It would host approximately 400 service workers in the Curry Student Center Ballroom.
Osorio said the BRC also rejected their proposal because the event was “too expensive” and did not benefit students. Osorio said LASO reduced their original asking price from $15,000 to $8,000 and demonstrated student support by initiating a petition which received 1,331 signatures.
But Benson said the petition was not only “misleading” but it wasn’t the main reason for disapproval.
“The main reason … was that the majority of the program, while somewhat community service, was to provide a service towards Northeastern employees and Northeastern affiliates that receive payment for their services at the university,” Benson said.
He also said the money for Springfest came out of a “major event fund” which had the approval of a large portion of the student body.
Despite the fact that over 1,000 students signed a petition in support of the event, some students are still unsure how many actually plan to attend.
“It’s a nice idea. I’m just not sure if a banquet dinner is the way to go to show them that they’re appreciated,” said Michael Bianchi, a senior chemistry major. “If I knew whether they’d all attend, I’d feel better about it.”
An NU service worker who wished to remain anonymous said a previous catering company hosted appreciation banquets for workers. After Chartwells took over, the appreciation banquets ended. LASO looked to Chartwells as a source for donations, but Osorio said they did not even consider it because the banquet would be honoring other workers outside of the catering company.
Osorio said LASO’s next step will be to file an appeal and complaint to Michael Romano, the president of the Student Government Association. Benson said if the appeal is approved, it will be sent to the Office of Student Affairs, where they would determine if it meets BRC guidelines. He also added the BRC is going through their annual process of reviewing their guidelines, which would include their policy on funding food. He said any changes to the policy would take effect on July 1.
LASO’s fight for funding for the banquet is not the first dispute they have had with the BRC. Josue Garcia, a junior computer science major and a member of LASO since freshman year, said two years ago, the BRC funded LASO’s ethnic food carnival. This year, LASO was denied funds for the carnival.
“After having two years of precedence with the same people on the committee, the rules I guess, supersedes our precedence,” Garcia said. “If the BRC is concerned about where their money is going … they should get involved in some way, and [not] be afraid if some idea seems out of the norm. I think that’s what college is about, the ability to innovate, and also to help others.”
