The Student Service Finance Committee voted to grant funding eligibility for Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment for two more years Thursday night.
With nine votes in favor and two abstentions, SSFC agreed to fund PAVE. The student organization is dedicated to preventing sexual assault, dating violence and stalking through education and activism, according to their web page.
Rep. Lauren Davidson said that the group’s core programming had sufficiently exceeded its support programming, as is required for a student organization to be eligible for funding.
“It seems like they put a lot of time into their general workshops, along with their specialized workshops, their awareness months and also their outreach tabling,” Davidson said. “It seems like supportive programming definitely fits into one time events and events they are spending less time on.”
Rep. Henry Galles said he believed the group had demonstrated its ability to provide core programs. He said that the organization had done a good job of getting awareness out for their student organization and that they deserved recognition as a model organization.
Galles did voice concerns that some of the activities PAVE offered fell under the realm of support programming rather than core programming, however.
“Overall, I think there is a good focus on core programming, there is a good focus on support programming,” Galles said. “Even if we move those programs to support programs, I still think overall they focus on core programming.”
ASM proposes taking action against gelatin in Babcock ice cream
After the vote, SSFC turned their attention to Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics who presented in order to retain their own funding eligibility. AHA’s core goals are to create secular peer support and secular issue awareness.
AHA received some questioning about their ability to remain open and available to all campus students, especially students of religion. However, AHA President Emily Pyszora said that the group drew in a number of members who did not identify as Atheist.
“We have people who come in who are curious about who we are or are questioning [their identities],” Pyszora said. “We have a large population of people who are like, ‘I don’t know who I am, let’s find out.’”
Rep. Alexandra Qu was also sworn in to SSFC at the beginning of the session.
