ASHLAND – On Feb. 25, 5:03 pm in the Senate Chambers, The Students Fee Allocation Committee held a meeting to review the appeals of the following groups: National Student Exchange, The Outdoor Program, The Climbing Center, The Siskiyou, and the Resource Centers collectively.
In order to afford reallocating any funds to these groups, the committee decided to completely cut all funds from SOU’s Oregon Student Association (OSA), leaving $23,001 to redistribute to groups who wrote appeals to the SFAC. The appeals were judged on the basis of the following criteria: revenue generation, cost-to-benefit, and community impact.
The following describes the decisions made on the appeals in their respective order:
National Student Exchange (NSE)
The committee decided that the NSE has limited community impact, and a higher cost to its benefit. They decided to not allocate any additional funding.
The Outdoor Program
Willie Long and his companion, Matt, were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting. The committee decided on reallocating $10,000 to The Outdoor Program. The committee recognizes its large student retention and steady revenue generation, and felt that a 25% cut would hurt this school’s most generative and consistent program.
The Climbing Center
The committee decided to re-allocate $5000 to The SRC Climbing Wall.
The Siskiyou
The committee discussed many options for The Siskiyou, primarily recommending that they ask to receive funding from the Interclub Council. However, they ultimately decided it would not be fair to reroute a group with paid workers to a limited supply of money for volunteer organizations. According to bylaws, if The Siskiyou were to accept funding from Matt Sayre in the amount of $1,500 from the Athletics budget, The Siskiyou cannot receive any additional funding from the ICC. The committee decided to match Matt Sayre’s donation, allocating $3,000 in total to The Siskiyou.
The Resource Centers
The collective appeal of the Resource Centers stated individual testimonies for each center, but collectively expressed that the Resource Centers ask for no additional funding, as well as asking for no further cuts. The committee recognizes the community outreach and revenue generation the Resource Centers provides, and took this into consideration in additionally funding the Resource Centers despite asking for no additional funding in their formal appeal. However, an appeal can still be considered for additional funding given the nature of its request. After discussing the legality and equity of this situation, the committee decided to allocates the additional funds to the centers as listed:
-The Women’s Resource Center received an extra $3000 in funding.
-The Sustainability Resource Center received no additional funding.
-The Multicultural Resource Center received $3000 in funding.
-The Queer Resource Center received an extra $1000 in funding.
-The Veteran’s Resource Center received an extra $1000 in funding.
