Chern Yeen Yeo nervously awaited the verdict of his organization’s financial future.
Yeo, a freshman and representative of the Singapore Student Association, had just finished pitching the SSA’s budget to the ASUO Programs Finance Committee. He had hoped to preserve funding for his student organization despite dwindling membership and a lack of past and current events.
Members of the PFC questioned Yeo, seemingly attempting to find justification for the SSA’s budget. However, Yeo conceded that “only two freshmen were new to the group,” and no other new members were expected. He estimated that five to six members remained after graduation last year.
PFC Sen. Colin Andries sympathized with Yeo and told PFC members “we want to keep them active and alive,” but Andries added he could not justify maintaining a budget that had been scarcely used in the last few years.
Yeo, appearing to be a little stunned from his first PFC experience, quietly accepted the second-largest funding cut of Saturday’s PFC budget hearings — an 83 percent decrease in funds to a total of $75.
Sen. Michelle Rose tried to encourage Yeo after the decision.
“You’re an awesome group; we’re not denying that,” she said. “I would suggest that you build from the ground up.”
The largest individual funding cut of the day was to the Sports and Entertainment Law Forum. No SELF representative was present at the hearing time, and PFC voted to defund the organization. SELF’s 2003-04 budget is $326.
PFC chairperson Adrian Gilmore noted that all organizations have the right to appeal the PFC’s decision, provided they have new information within five days.
Also receiving a large budget cut was the Westmoreland Tenant Council. The PFC cut the stipend funding for the WTC’s vacant secretary/treasurer position and some spending items were cut due to an unclear spending history.
The PFC also motioned to cut the WTC’s vice chairman position, but, due to a technical rule, they needed a unanimous vote. Khanh Le, the PFC’s lone holdout, blocked the motion and the PFC eventually decided on a figure of $2,381 for a decrease of 31.8 percent.
In contrast to SSA, WTC and SELF’s budgets, several organizations fared much better. Groups that received additional funding were praised by PFC for their consistency in programming events that benefit the University as a whole, maintaining a strict budget and demonstrating a valid need for the increase.
The largest recipients of budget increases, by percentage, were the African Students Association and the Pacific Islands Club.
ASA received an increase of 56 percent for a total of $1,337. PIC was budgeted $417, up 39 percent. Both organizations impressed the PFC with their history of holding educational events and attaining private sponsorship.
The Sustainable Business Symposium received the largest monetary increase of the day with a total of $7,668, a 27.9 percent increase.
SBS Finance Officer Eduardo Nasrallah said the primary reason for the additional funding request was to be able to attract more prominent speakers to the next conference and to cover rising advertising costs.
“Basically, everything this group says they’re going to do, they do,” Gilmore said.
Among those who received minimal changes in funding were the Malaysian Student Organization ($60 for a decrease of 11.7 percent), the Latino/a Law Student Association ($269 for a 13.5 percent decrease) and the Black Law Student Association ($1,175 for an increase of 6.3 percent).
Two new organizations, the Student Association for Women in Architecture and Family Law in Practice, were each granted a $300 startup budget.
The Delta Graduate Student Organization had not completed necessary paperwork at the time of its hearing and its budget was tabled.