Tuesday, January 20, 2009
For the past 56 years the International Student Association has organized an International Awareness Week full of events, speakers and performances. The event requires a budget of $3,000 to $5,000 and up until this year, ISA has been able to count on money from Student Senate to help fund it. But as Senate money drains, ISA is beginning to fear it will have to find other ways to pay for the event.
“I am very much worried about not getting money from Senate,” Yaser AlZayer, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia junior and ISA president said. “I don’t think they are completely out of money, but I’m thinking it’s going to be hard.”
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Student Senate spent nearly $72,000 of its $108,168 yearly budget by the end of the fall semester and is now strapped for cash, which is putting a greater financial strain on student organizations this spring.
ISA isn’t the only student group looking for money. Student Senate spent nearly $72,000 of its $108,168 yearly budget by the end of the fall semester and is now strapped for cash, which is putting a greater financial strain on student organizations this spring.
AlZayer said his organization was in the process of looking over its budget before going to Student Senate to ask for money for the first time this year. But if ISA cannot receive enough funding from Senate to cover the costs of International Awareness Week, AlZayer said he didn’t know if the group would be able to raise enough money on its own.
“I’m not sure what we’d do,” AlZayer said. “I’m just hoping that there will be something out there for us.”
Koga Moffor, Overland Park senior and Black Student Union president, said her organization had a good experience with getting money from Senate in the past and was hoping Senate would be able to help them out again.
“We don’t have a ton of money and we have a big event in April that we really want to do,” Moffor said. “I hope that they’ll be able to help us out a little bit, but if we don’t get it from Student Senate we’ll have to get it other ways.”
Other organizations on campus that fund smaller groups said they expected to see an increase in requests for funding because Student Senate would be turning away more groups than usual.
Nathan Mack, Lawrence senior and vice president of administration for Student Union Activities, said SUA anticipated an increase in the number of funding requests it would receive because of Senate’s decreased budget.
“It’s kind of hard to tell at this point how much request there’s going to be, but we’re definitely anticipating it,” Mack said. “We’re going to have to be really smart in how we view the requests. This has made us take a good hard look at our finances and at how and where we’re spending our money.”
Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., junior and Student Senate treasurer, said the lack of Senate funds this semester was not necessarily a bad thing, because it meant more groups had received funding already.
“There will be a scramble, and that always happens in the spring,” Porte said. “I think there’s going to be enough money for groups but groups need to be innovative in looking for other sources of funding. Groups tend to lean on Senate when they could be out fundraising or looking for other sources of funding.”
— — Edited by Susan Melgren
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