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Event financers facing shortfall
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by Peter Sielski
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Student groups may now have to look a bit harder for event grant funding, as the Associated Students of Madison Financial Committee nearly allocated its remaining funds Tuesday.
The committee received more than $16,000 in total requests from five groups, with less than $12,000 remaining in the committee's funding.
"We don't have enough money to fund all these organizations; cuts will have to be made," committee Chair Sree Atluru said before budget negotiations began.
Though the committee usually runs low on funding by the end of the year, Atluru said it typically does not happen until late April or early May — not the beginning of March.
Grant money was expected to be completely depleted by the end of the night. However, due to the group's adherence to "fiscal responsibility" with cuts, the committee still had more than $2,000 left to allocate at the end of the meeting.
The budget proposal from The 10,000 Hours Show — which requested $3,500 for a concert sponsored for volunteering high school students, college students and young professionals — failed to pass after a unanimous vote against it.
"It doesn't follow our guidelines, and the attendance isn't expected to be that great," committee member Aaron Ayotte said.
Though the other four grant proposals passed, they all faced some budget alterations.
The group "Taken by 4orce" proposed a grant for more than $7,000. However, after cuts to travel, equipment and housing costs, the remaining budget was reduced to roughly $4,100.
Other groups also found their proposals cut in half following lengthy committee debate, such as InfoShop's initial request of roughly $2,200. The committee reduced the request down to $1,400 after cuts were made to advertisements and honorary funding.
The last group, the Indian Students Association, proposed $5,113 and presumed to receive the committee's remaining $5,005.01. However, its proposal was followed by a lengthy debate on costumes.
Despite some concern from some on the committee that the students are allowed to keep the costumes, committee member Supreet Shah argued the costumes are a significant part of functions the group hosts.
"We do need costumes because it is a big part of their presentation," Shah said. "They should be cut, but not zero fund[ed]."
However, funding was eventually cut entirely for costumes, and the budget passed by a narrow vote.
The committee's decision to zero-fund for costumes cut ISA's budget down to $2,813 — leaving the Finance Committee with only $2,192.01 to allocate for the rest of the academic year.
"That money is left around for the remainder of the year," Atluru said. "If there are any other event grants that are submitted, then those organizations get a chance to get a hearing from us and get funded."
Atluru said the committee began with a budget of $142,000. However, she added, the committee isn't necessarily required to allocate the entire allowance.
— Nick Penzenstadler contributed to this report.
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