The ASUI Funding Board heard from 27 student organizations and awarded a total of $20,000 to 16 of them during its final meeting of the year.
The meeting, which took place April 16, lasted five and a half hours. ASUI Funding Board Chair Sarah Vetsmany said 37 student organizations applied to be seen by the board, which is made up of Vetsmany and ASUI Senators Max Cowan, Katie Cramer and Hunter Howell.
Vetsmany said the average amount of time each group spent before the board was about seven to 10 minutes, but if they were thorough with their applications, they could finish their presentation to the board in as little as three minutes.
Cowan said despite the lengthy meeting, he found the presentations interesting.
“Well, I am a bit of a nerd so I thought it was a lot of fun,” Cowan said. “It was really cool to see that many student orgs get funding.”
Cowan said they allocated all the remaining funds at the meeting, but couldn’t provide funds to all organizations because they didn’t have enough remaining.
“At this last hearing, because we had already allocated so many funds in the previous hearings we didn’t have enough funds to give to every organization that came, and we didn’t have enough to give to every organization that deserved funds,” Cowan said. “We allocated funds based on priority. The funding board bylaws clearly outline which types of funding have priority over others and the main goal is to impact the greatest number
of students with the funding we give out.”
Cowan had advice for how student organizations looking for funding can maximize their chances of getting it.
“We had something like eight hearings this year, so while it was a tough decision at this last hearing to not be able to allocate every student org funding, they all were given the opportunity to come to an earlier hearing,” Cowan said. “Coming at an earlier hearing means you have a better chance of getting money because you aren’t fighting against a large number of organizations.”
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]