*Editor’s note: The Spectator applied for segregated fees funding for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
On Tuesday, the Student Senate Organizations Commission heard appeals from ten student organizations, all of which are hoping to receive money from the 2011-2012 student segregated fees. In addition, other campus groups gave presentations on Wednesday and will continue today in front of the Student Senate Finance Commission.
Tuesday’s presentation process was different from past years because of the new role of the Organizations Commission. In the past, student organizations have made presentations directly to the Finance Commission, but this year the Organizations Commission served as a middleman.
“It’s like another opinion,” said junior Jessi Van Natta, director of the Organizations Commission. “We’re kind of the relay between the organizations and the Finance (Commission).”
Five of the organizations that presented this year had been in front of the Finance Commission last fall.
Junior Kristie O’Brien, treasurer of the UW-Eau Claire Women’s Rugby Club, participated in the process last year and was ready to make a case for the club sport again.
“With the numbers that we are putting out there, we are definitely running our team at a deficit that our players have to pick up every year,” she said.
O’Brien said that the team will always be able to get by, but historically, the funds that they have received from segregated fees funding definitely help.
“We’re looking for these funds to basically help out our members, to relieve some of the burden financially placed upon them,” she said.
This year, several organizations applied for funding from student segregated fees for the first time.
English Fest, one of those organizations, presented for the first time and Cathy Rex, English professor and faculty advisor for the festival, said she was glad they did.
“It was a good opportunity on a number of levels,” she said. “It was nice to be able to apply for the funding which we desperately need, but it was nice just to be able to let a larger segment of the population start to know who we are and what we provide for on campus.”
Also new this year is the opportunity for student organizations to request more funding than they could in previous years. A bill passed by Student Senate on April 12 removed the $750 cap for requests.
“We saw organizations last year that we felt deserved more money than $750,” said Jacob Kampen, director of the Student Senate Finance Commission.
For the upcoming year, the individual cap has been removed and a larger target cap has been set in place to cover all organizations. The Finance Commission will be responsible for setting that cap every year. This change was another reason for the inclusion of the Organizations Commission in this year’s request process.
“The Organizations Commission of Student Senate takes all the requests, puts them into scale with each other and fits them all into that ‘group cap’ that all the organizations fit into,” Kampen said.
Van Natta will present the Organizations Commission’s recommendations to the Finance Commission tonight, and the Finance Commission will present to Student Senate in February. The tentative allocations should be available next week.
