Everyone loves campus activities – whether it’s free concerts at Centennial Commons like PIKEtoberfest, or the Latin American Student Organization’s annual Cultural Show.
Once the curtains close, though, many students are left with the question: Where did the money for this event come from?
The money comes from a number of places, but the Budget Review Committee (BRC), a branch of the Student Government Association (SGA), is often responsible for allocating a large part of it. The BRC funds the events through the Student Activities Fee, which is $109 per student as part of tuition each year.
Many concerns have recently been voiced about the BRC’s method of granting funds. A number of smaller cultural and diverse student groups said they believe the BRC is favoring events sponsored by Greek life organizations.
The BRC consists of 12 members, including six positions for students at large and six positions for SGA senators. Of the 12 voting members, five individuals belong to a fraternity or sorority, and one member is pledging, said BRC chair Jennifer Hardy in an interview with The News. Hardy, who cannot vote, is a member Delta Zeta.
Based on numbers from BRC allocation reports, a smaller amount of funds were denied to Greek-sponsored events than they were to other events. On average, the BRC denied about $2,021.04 per Greek event, whereas each non-Greek event was denied about $5,081.47.
With the current procedures in place, the BRC requires student groups to request funds at least six weeks prior to their event. When organizing an event at the magnitude of PIKEtoberfest, or an entire weeks worth of events like Alcohol Week, six weeks of planning is necessary. But in many cases, planning smaller events takes far less time. For the United Nations Association, for example, it did not make sense to plan its Election Watch Party, which the BRC funded, six weeks in advance.
This rule prohibits the organization of smaller scale campus events and it’s unfair to groups sponsoring them.
It appears the Greeks have found their loophole in the BRC system. The BRC’s bank account is at its highest at the beginning of Summer II. The majority of the Greek organizations requested funding for most of their events from the BRC during the summer, even though their events weren’t scheduled for well into the fall semester.
So as the semester progresses, the BRC naturally has less money. Therefore, when a student group requests money mid-October, the BRC cannot allocate the full amount.
This is extremely unfair to the smaller student groups because it’s simply impossible to have every detail planned out during the summer. For example, when the Aids Awareness Week: Fashion-ably Aware was presented to the BRC, there were not enough funds left in the December program budget to fully fund this program. For this reason the BRC decided not to fund the event, Hardy said in an e-mail to The News.
The BRC is not accurately representing the student body. It needs to serve all students, no matter what organizations they belong to. It’s not the responsibility of the student group leaders to make sure the BRC is operating fairly – it’s the BRC’s job to make sure it’s doing so it on its own.
The BRC needs to re-evaluate its allocation process so that student groups who propose events in October or November can get equal and fair treatment. It is irresponsible for the BRC to spend such a large amount of money in the summer months and be left with a semi-empty pocket when the school year actually begins.
