Being short on cash is a common problem among many college students, but for one student group at the University, that issue is even more severe.
The Chinese Taiwanese Student Association is having money troubles planning for China Night, its main event of the school year. CTSA could save thousands of dollars when buying materials for the January event. But a University policy prohibits student groups from using student incidental fee money to purchase items overseas.
Vitus Leung, co-director of the Hong Kong Student Association, said many student groups have trouble getting items from foreign countries.
He added that relying on local cultural resources is far from perfect. For Hong Kong Night, Leung said a travel association donated cultural materials, but the items were more like souvenirs than authentic cultural items.
“It’s really tough to find traditional Chinese cultural items in the local community,” Leung said.
Katie McGraw, an ASUO program controller, said purchasing overseas items is not permitted because it would cause too many complications. To spend fee money, student groups must first get authorization for purchases from their controller, write a purchase order to a vendor and provide an itemized receipt or invoice detailing what their purchases were. Buying items from overseas would further complicate this process because of exchange rates and different languages.
“It’s hard enough getting vendors paid that are down the street,” McGraw said. Buying items from overseas “complicates things so much that we try to divert our groups from doing that.”
CTSA President Vickee Liang said China Night drains most of the group’s finances. CTSA is planning a larger and more elaborate celebration than in previous years, and the group predicts more than 1,200 people will attend. As a result, Liang estimated expenses for the event could reach $30,000, although the group is trying to cut back costs.
One of the main problems the group is facing — aside from raising enough money to fund the event — is acquiring traditional cultural materials such as food, clothing and decorations from Taiwan. Liang said getting these materials creates a problem for CTSA because the group cannot be reimbursed by ASUO for purchases made overseas. She added that it is possible to attain some of the needed materials in the United States, but it is usually more expensive and difficult to find locally.
“In the Eugene community, Chinese cultural resources are actually pretty limited,” Liang said.
By purchasing the goods in the United States, CTSA could now pay up to three times as much for necessary items. One example is paper lanterns: CTSA needs 500 of them for decoration. Liang estimated that paper lanterns cost $10 each in Taiwan, while in the United States they would cost somewhere between $35 and $50 each.
CTSA was allocated $4,000 from student incidental fees to fund China Night, and received about $8,000 in donated materials from various governmental agencies. But if the group members want to purchase items from overseas, the money must come out of their own pockets.
“The only way we can get those things is from our own country,” Liang said. “And now we’re not sure if we can get any material from Taiwan at all.”