Why B-Status funding was so painless this year

ANALYSIS

B-status funding flew by this year, with only one debate concerning Brown Sugar occurring throughout the entire process which lasted less than 30 minutes. Student group leaders for the most part sat in their chairs complacently, neither motioning for more money for their student groups nor disagreeing with the Executive Committee's funding recommendations for other groups.

"Funding went smoothly and I'd like to think that was Executive Committee's ability to meet with student groups and get their reasoning before the meeting," said ASG Speaker Jesse Garfinkel.

On the whole, Weinberg sophomore Garfinkel is probably right. But besides the conclusion that student groups were largely satisfied with the Executive Committee's funding recommendations and their reasoned collaboration with student groups staved off funding battles between student groups, the structure of B-status funding allows for this funding cycle, unlike A-status funding cycles in the Fall and Spring quarters, to be fairly painless for senators and group leaders (and Daily bloggers) to sit through.

Executive Committee must allocate every penny of their funding pool ($21,480.80 this year) in their recommendation. In contrast, the Student Activities Finance Board, which oversees A-status group funding, cannot recommend all of their funds because of a senate amendment pool which ASG senators can allocate at their own discretion. This extra money forces senators and student group leaders to debate over where this extra money should be allocated. This can get sticky.

In addition, there is more money at stake under A-status funding, with SAFB allocating nearly a million dollars to about 40 A-status groups . This increased funding pool coupled with fewer student groups to allocate this money to complicates the funding process. You can already see the questions forming in student group leaders' heads. Who's getting the most money? Why can't we as a student group siphon off some of their money for our cause? Enter debate here.

On the other hand, B-status student groups have only a quarter of the funds A-status groups have. This is primarily due to the lower operating cost of these B-status student groups. Performances need a couple thousand dollars to put on, as opposed to the A-status student groups which must spend tens of thousands of dollars to bring speakers and put on massive events. This makes it kind of pointless for small student groups to fight other small, cash-strapped student groups for more funding. It's just too mean to do otherwise.

Furthermore, some of the B-status student groups are new or still acclimating to ASG funding. Many newly recognized groups that have been bumped from T-status to B-status, and groups with only a few years of development under their belts do not feel like they have enough clout or the group membership to fight for more money.

Other B-status groups may be intimidated by the complexities surrounding the bureaucracy of ASG and their funding methods. The "newbie effect" affecting some student groups makes them complacent to Executive Committee's funding recommendations. And perhaps some groups are not fully aware of all of the ASG's funding guidelines either, as four student groups failed to meet funding guidelines this year and were docked because of it.

It's difficult to allocate funds to student groups. Funding guidelines were created to maintain fiscal responsibility to the students who pay for these student groups. In addition, ASG must broker compromises between student groups so that everyone gets a portion of the pie. This is all a complicated process, and the fact that there was only one dissension this year cannot be wholly attributed to the Executive Committee's prowess.

There are many factors at play here.

-Paul Takahashi, veteran ASG reporter

Motion to rearrange orders of business failed

SESP senior Ivy LeTourneau motioned to change the order of business to bring the two bills — group executive accountability and gender protection — in front of B-status funding. A vote of two-thirds of the Senate would be needed. The motion failed.

LeTourneau said it would be better to change the order of business because in previous years business after funding "kind of just gets shoved through and not properly considered."

Executive Vice President Matt Bogusz asked for a show of hands to see how many student group leaders were there to "protect student funding."

With one of the busiest meeting of the year, a substantial amount of hands went up.

"It was set to be first on the docket," the Weinberg junior said. "We hope to make a quick process ... Student groups are just waiting to talk about funding."


—ALICE TRUONG

B-Status Funding meeting begins

Ten minutes past 7 p.m., the Associated Student Government Speaker Jesse Garfinkel calls the ASG senate meeting to order through the screechy mic. Executive Committee's funding of about 42 B-status student groups will dominate much of the meeting, and it shows in the incredible number of student group leaders and senators crammed in the meeting room at Norris tonight.

The second annual B-Status group funding is organized by the Executive Committee, headed by Executive Vice President, Matt Bogusz. This funding cycle, which always occurs during the Winter Quarter, will fund groups that are less established or can carry their activities without much help from ASG.

-Paul Takahashi

Preview for Feb. 6 ASG meeting

Tomorrow is the start of B-status group funding. The Daily will be live-blogging the event, so check out the latest news as it breaks tomorrow, starting at 7 p.m.

In addition to funding, two bills introduced at last week’s meeting will go to floor.

• Protecting Gender at NU aims to change the university’s non-discrimination policy.
  
• Group Executive Accountability aims to conduct quarterly evaluations of group executives that work with B- and T- status groups.
  

Associated Student Government financial vice president applications are due tomorrow to current FVP Aneesa Arshad. As of late morning today, the SESP senior said. Check out The Daily's print version for more information to come soon.


—ALICE TRUONG

B-status group funding next week

The executive committee has released its B-status funding recommendations for the quarter.  Financial Vice President Matt Bogusz said the senators' homework was to look at the packet presented by the committee.  There's a big restructuring of the recommendations, with the committee's explanation of why they're recommended the amount of funds.

A total of $98,027 was requested by 42 B-status groups.  The recommendations total $21,420.80.  Among the B-status groups, Dance Marathon requested and was recommended the most amount of funds.  Dance Marathon requested $31,000 — for lighting for five different events —  and the committee recommends $2,000.

Tune in for live blogging of B-status funding next Wednesday.

—ALICE TRUONG

ASG releases Student-Community Relations Taskforce

Check out The Daily tomorrow for more details about the task force report.

But briefly, the Student-Community Relations Taskforce, composed off faculty members and student leaders, made the following recommendations during Fall Quarter to improve the relationship between Northwestern and Evanston:

1. Creating a "third space": The task force hopes to use Shanley Pavilion, when theater groups have secured a new location, to create a cafe or sports bar atmosphere for both on- and off-campus students to socialize in a healthy manner during late-night weekends.
2. Improving off-campus transportation: This shuttle would transport students to make downtown Chicago more accessible to students who can use this as a healthy alternative to excessive drinking. The task force also wants to work with the shuttle office for specific shuttle routes and with Saferide to decrease wait-times on Friday and Saturday nights.
3. Amending the freshman freeze: The task force wants to shorten the freshman freeze to only the week of Wildcat Welcome. The currently policy prohibits freshmen in Greek houses until the end of the third week of class. In addition to changing the policy, the task force encourages the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association to hold information sessions at the beginning of the academic year about recruitment and interactions with on-campus Greek organizations.
4. Tackling on-campus drinking: By improving new student alcohol education and providing late-night weekend munchies, the task force hopes to see a decrease in on-campus drinking. The new alcohol education would combine what is instated, such as on-campus educational programs, with information tailored specifically for NU students.
5. Creating an off-campus housing office: A new off-campus housing office could provide information sessions for students considering living off campus or students already in off-campus residences. These sessions could tell students a range of information from contract negotiation and signing to how to throw a responsible off-campus party. The task force also hopes to see an off-campus housing review Web site. The office wold continue to work on increasing positive interactions between off-campus NU students and Evanston residents.
6. Changing Wildcat Welcome: The task force wants to shorten Wildcat Welcome to five or six days improve late-night programming, include upperclassmen in Wildcat Welcome's programs and delay the move-in of returning students on campus from Wednesday to Thursday or Friday. Creating a fall quarter student advisory board with Associated Student Government, Panhellenic, Interfraternity Council, Residence Hall Association, Residential College Board presidents to meet several times during Fall Quarter to provide feedback to Wildcat Welcome coordinators.

Some of these recommendations might seem familiar. The Associated Student Government external relations committee has already been working on to create an off-campus residence review Web site and to create a weekend Chicago shuttle.

ASG President Jon Webber said administrators have generally responded well to the recommendations, but that doesn't necessarily mean there will be funding for all of them. The task force's findings are still being presented to administrators who couldn't make the Dec. 5 meeting. The Weinberg senior said three things will happen to the list of recommendations:

• Webber hopes to see some of the recommendations on the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee's list of recommendations, that is due to come out sometime during February.
• Some funding for student groups might support some of the recommendations.
• University officials either reject or fund the recommendations.

Of the list, Webber identified creating an off-campus housing office as most important for students and on the top of his list, Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Banis said creating a third space was something the university will focus on (“This is something we will weave into our planning for spacing,” he said), and Banis said shortening the freshman freeze or Wildcat Welcome was unlikely.

Wildcat Welcome is unlikely to change because of the individual schools' advising policy, which would be difficult to re-engineer. Wildcat Welcome's length also depends on the way the week falls on the calendar, which can range from seven to 11 days.

The freshman freeze also is unlikely to change because it is an academically drawn policy instated by the General Faculty Committee, which is NU's equivalent to a faculty senate, which spent years to craft.

"It'd require too many people to change (the policy)," Banis said. "Frankly, I don't see that going away."


—ALICE TRUONG