Student Association leaders revamped the university-wide program fund this fall following an experimental year in which the fund was depleted three months before the end of the spring semester, leaving students unable to fund large-scale events. said.
The two SA representatives on the UWPF Committee, SA Senator Simon Patmore-Zarkone (Law-G) and SA Senator Ethan Fitzgerald (CCAS-U), said the committee has a budget of 219,176.33 for this year. He said he spent about 70 percent of his dollars on: Fall Fund and some Spring semester events. This year, the commission set aside funding for specific cultural heritage celebrations, relaxed the 350-guest requirement and required organizations to return half of profits from events to the foundation if members sell same-day tickets. They said they had stopped making demands.
Some student organization leaders said they felt there was a lack of communication after submitting funding applications to the UWPF committee and wanted more transparency about the status of their applications.
UWPF is a joint fund between GW and SA primarily for large-scale multicultural events, and is decentralized and managed by a committee of three SA members and three university administrators. The university subsidizes the endowment by donating 50 cents for every credit hour a student takes.
Patmore-Zarcone said the UWPF committee “recognizes” the need to set aside funding for specific cultural heritage celebrations that were not funded last year. The fund will support six GW-recognized cultural heritage celebrations this year, including Latin Heritage Celebration, Native American Heritage Month, Black History Month, South Asian History Month, and Asian American Pacific Islander History Month. He said he had allocated $20,000.
“We approach these requests with the idea that we should be more aggressive in funding below this $20,000 limit,” Patmore-Zarcone said.
This is a big difference from previous years, when there was no “comprehensive plan,” meaning the commission allocated requests on a first-come, first-served basis and did not set aside funds for specific purposes, Patmore-Zarkone said. Ta.
Patmore-Zarkone said the commission would also be more lenient in enforcing the requirement that events using UWPF funds have at least 350 participants, but that the commission would It added that it is likely to provide funding.
Fitzgerald said that because the endowment’s funds are limited, the committee should ask university officials to reduce the cost of renting organizational space on campus or ask the student body to provide support to various organizations such as the SA Finance Committee. He said he would ask organizations to instruct them to apply for funding. May be more appropriate for funding requests that are not culturally based.
“Everything is important, we just don’t have the money,” Fitzgerald said. “So we make sure to think, ‘Okay, we need this money now. How can we get it?'”
Chrissy Krall, director of Law Review, a student organization that hosts an annual law student talent show attended by about 400 people, applied for $29,487.89 in the fund and received $10,000. He said the creation of the UWPF took $24,000 out of the Student Bar Association’s budget, making funding for the event available to all students that had previously been reserved for law students. He said that it has become difficult to guarantee that
She said there was “no discussion” from the committee about the funding approval process or the potential opportunity to appear before the UWPF committee to negotiate the allocation amount.
“Since its inception, funds have been transferred from a fund designated for law students to a fund intended for all students, creating further uncertainty and frustration,” Krall said in an email. Ta.
The SA Senate passed the University-wide Program Funding Improvement Act in May. This bill aims to make UWPF more inclusive and accessible to graduate students by requiring UWPF committee members to share and provide up-to-date information on committee assignments. In the 14 meetings held in the Senate since passage, the committee has not provided any updates.
Nick Ammahian, president of the GW Jazz Orchestra, said he applied for the fund for the first time this fall to help fund the organization’s annual winter concert. He said he applied for funding five weeks before the event, but due to the tight deadline, he did not receive a response from the committee until he inquired about the status of his application.
“I don’t want to be kicked out week after week and not be told what’s really going on,” Ammahian said. “When it comes to money, that’s very important. We had to schedule the event.”
Mr Ammahian said the UWPF committee then told him that the SA Finance Committee had taken over his request, but he was not told why. He said he had to “take a gamble” in planning the event and hope he would get the funds needed for the performance.
After the South African Treasury Board took over his request, Mr Ammahian said he did not hear anything until he contacted the finance team again. He said he immediately received an email saying he had verified the funds but he forgot to press send.
“I’ve been waiting for three weeks for something that has already been decided,” Anmahian said.
Mr Anmahian said the Jazz Orchestra received $1,990 of the $3,342.30 it requested, but it was unclear whether the SA Finance Board or UWPF funded the request. The commission does not update the public tracker on its website, so there is no way to prove which funds were allocated, he said.
Prerna Polepalli, vice president of the GW South Asia Association, said the fund helps support events, but the organization said there was a lack of communication from the committee as funding applications went through the approval process. said he noticed.
“It would be great if there was some way to get up-to-date information about where things stand and how much money is left in the fund, because right now it’s done through speculation and word of mouth, and it’s not reliable. is low,” Polepari said.
According to funding allocation records, GW SAS received $55,850 of the $110,150 it requested during the four events. Polepari said she did not receive any updates after applying to the fund, so she did not know the status of her application or whether it had been reviewed by the committee. Polepari said he wants the committee to keep organizations updated on how much money is left in the fund.