The Undergraduate Student Government discussed its fall budget allocations for St. Thomas clubs and organizations Sunday night.
The proposed budget allocations for all clubs totaled $87,047, more than 38 percent less than the total of all budget requests received by the finance committee ($141,194).
If the proposed funding is passed, SHINE, Rock Climbing Club, Saint Paul’s Outreach, KUST, ANSA and Volunteers in Action will be among the top recipients.
In the proposed budget allocations, five clubs or organizations were denied funding. The Advertising Federation, American Marketing Association, Art Attack, Band Club and the Public Relations Student Society of America were not approved for USG funding due to various questions about their budget proposals. USG may have its final vote on the proposed allocations Sunday, Oct. 25.
“Thespians Unite!” received unanimous USG approval and is now an official university organization. The club aims to maintain a theatrical arts presence on campus after the dissolution of the university’s theater department.
The USG is forming a team to participate in the “community clean-up” event Sunday, Nov. 8. The event is sponsored by the Student Alumni Council.
Brent Fischer can be reached at bafischer@stthomas.edu
I don’t know full details regarding “questions about their budget proposals” but it seems a little absurd to me that clubs and organizations dedicated to career development and expanding knowledge of educational topics are denied funding when clubs such as Rock Climbing Club are top recipients…
It seems that these stories regarding the USG budget allocations only bring more questions than answers. It’s interesting to find out these clubs got denied funding but what I really care about is why they didn’t receive funding. Especially, like Patrick said, when some of the clubs not getting funding are educational based, while some of the groups receiving the most money are primarily recreational. Another issue is the fact that it is now about half way through the semester and USG still hasn’t even informed the clubs what they are being allocated. This far in the semester, most groups have likely spent half of their budget and to find out now that they are receiving no funds.
hah, yeah. It sort of seems like this article is making a bigger deal out of the “story” than it needs to. From how i’m reading it, it sounds like once those “questions” , whatever they may be, are answered, then the clubs can get funding
Well, hopefully there is a follow up story- but I will tell you this, the leaders of some of these clubs found out from this news post that they were denied funding. To be honest, I am a little let down with USG, they hadn’t even contacted those in charge of these clubs to let them know they were denied funding. Really?
I fully agree with Patrick. The leaders of the clubs denied funding should have been contacted first by USG representatives before any of them ever spoke to a TommieMedia reporter. I just spoke to a friend who is in a leadership position for one of the clubs denied funding, and she had no idea that a decision had been made yet. Really USG? That’s pretty unprofessional. Get ready for some angry knocks on your door.
According to USG, the club budgets were not denied. There has not been a final vote, and no budgets have been officially approved or denied yet. The straw poll taken at the meeting was only to determine if there were further questions about the budget proposals. Budgets will be approved at an upcoming meeting and club boards will be notified personally. TommieMedia should be more careful in the future to confirm with USG what is actually happening with club budgets before posting erroneous information.
I was one of the “leaders of a club” as mentioned by Patrick, that found out through this article that my club seemed to not be receiving funds. I have talked with USG and all is not as cut and dried as this article makes it sound. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk with them and hopefully have some discussion this week regarding the issue. However, I would like to encourage reporters for TommieMedia to make sure they have all their bases covered before reporting a story. I will most likely be fielding questions from members of my club as to why we didn’t receive funding which is something I would rather not have to deal with.
Karen and Leigh–you want TommieMedia to “be more careful in the future to confirm with USG what is actually happening with club budgets before posting erroneous information,” and “make sure they have all their bases covered before reporting a story.”???
Check out the headline of this story: “Proposed budget denies funding to five clubs.” Does it say anything about USG denying these clubs funding? No. It says USG’s PROPOSED budget denied the funding to these clubs. In fact, the story even says that the final vote won’t happen until October 25. What more do you want??? There is no erroneous information in this story, it simply states the facts. I think TommieMedia did a great job in letting people know how USG is spending tuition money.
Leigh Anne, Patrick, Matthew, Tony, and I are not the only ones who got from the article that the proposed budget, denying certain clubs funding, is ready to be enacted. The article sent the wrong message to club leadership and members by failing to mention that the five mentioned clubs with ‘questions’ remaining about their budgets just need to complete some final paperwork or clarification and aren’t simply out of luck for no apparent reason.