Members of the student government committee that allocates incidental fees on Tuesday clashed on how to finance groups that failed to turn in a document required earlier in the budgeting process.
The ASUO Programs Finance Committee refused to increase the budgets of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Advocates and the Hong Kong Student Association, giving each a “zero percent increase” because they failed to file a benchmark memo, a document upon which the PFC bases its projected allocations.
The PFC earlier this year had loosely agreed to not give increases to groups that didn’t turn in their benchmarks, PFC Chairman Jared Axelrod said. The idea was that these organizations could later appeal for a funding increase.
Debate first erupted when members realized the ADRA, a group that promotes alternative dispute resolution processes, had not filed its benchmark memo.
“Being that they didn’t submit a memo, and 95 percent of the groups did, I’d be for following the model and giving zero percent increase,” PFC member Adam Turcott said.
Axelrod disagreed.
“There hasn’t really been a ‘precedent’ for non-submittal of benchmark memo,” he said.
The group was seeking more funding for its local mediation competition, airfare to send winners to regional and national finals and more funding to bring speakers in for events.
With the expectation that the group would make an appeal, the PFC allocated $530, the same budget as it did last year, by a vote of 3-1-2.
HKSA President Janet Cheh and Activity Coordinator William Siu submitted the budget proposal for their group, which promotes Chinese culture and offers support to international students. Turcott said the group shouldn’t get an increase because it didn’t submit its benchmark.
“There is no precedent or rule for that,” PFC member Kristen Kato said.
PFC member Scott Lu said the committee should be mindful that the PFC process is highly technical and potentially confusing for someone who speaks English as a second language. Because the group had actually run over its budget last year, Lu and ASUO Controller Madeline Widgen also recommended funding the group at least to current service levels, a figure which takes into unavoidable cost increases.
“The point of the benchmark memo was to aid the PFC in constructing their (benchmark) memo,” said Widgen, who asked for at least the current service level for the group.
The PFC decided to fund the group to current service levels and gave the group $3,649 – an otherwise zero percent increase – by a vote of 5-0-1.
“I think this an excellent compromise-slash-precedent,” Turcott said. “Now we have precedent, precedent, precedent.”
The committee also unanimously approved, $83,967, a 7 percent increase, for the International Resource Center, which provides support and information for International students at the University and for local students traveling outside the country. The group was asking for an increase in order to maintain its student staff members. Malena said although he was hesitant to impact student jobs, he was a firm believer in the 7 percent maximum budget increase cap that the ASUO imposed this year.
The Criminal Law Association, which Co-Directors Ed Kroll and Miranda Plummer said had been “defunct” for some years and was in the process of rebuilding, received a recommendation from the ASUO executive for a 79.08 percent decrease.
Multiple committee members called the recommendation harsh and unanimously settled on a $184 budget, a 37 percent decrease.
Kultura Pilipanas, a Filipino cultural group that hosts several events and fundraises extensively, was rewarded a $2,562 budget, a $150 increase from last year’s budget.
The PFC also quickly passed the $4,905 budget for the Committee for Musical Arts, which made no requests for an increase.
The Coalition Against Environmental Racism, a student run organization for Environmental Justice, was seeking to expand beyond the single conference it hosts each year.
The PFC allocated the group $14,100 – a 8.89 percent increase – on the condition that it revise its job descriptions, which were deemed unsatisfactory.
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