Big Night For Club Funding at USG Senate Meeting

Five clubs picked up a combined $5,617 in Special Services Council funding and three clubs that had their line budget statuses restored last week regained all but five percent of their original funding.

Also at the meeting, five other clubs regained their line budget statuses after being defunded for not holding any events during the fall semester. They will be able to reapply for funding next week.

The Meteorology Club, Animated Perspectives, and the Kumdo Club met with the USG Budget Committee this week to discuss what they needed for their budgets and the findings were presented to the Senate.

“We brought them all roughly up to where they were to begin with,” said Treasurer Thomas Kirnbauer of the budgets. The Meteorology Club gained $40 after the review.

Senator David Adams objected to this, saying that he was uncomfortable rewarding the clubs for not following the rules, even if it was only with $40.

“More than 80 percent of our clubs were able to follow the rules,” he said. The majority of the Senate agreed with him and voted to amend each of the budget appropriations so that they met 95 percent of their original funding.

William Verity, the president of the Meteorology Club, wasn’t satisfied with the result. “They completely just killed our chances for attending the North Eastern Storm Conference in March,” he said, “which would have been an awesome opportunity for our new members to learn more from the people presenting their work and to also make contacts, possibly for future jobs.”

Although no legislation has been passed yet, senators have indicated that all clubs seeking to regain their line budget status and funding this semester will be treated in the same way. Senator Max Gunther suggested that the precedent should be written into law.

Senators Ryann Williams and David Szeszler advocated for a case-by-case approach, but they were outvoted on two separate occasions.

According to Verity, that would have been a better approach. In mid-March, a member of the Meteorology Club’s e-board was impeached. Though a replacement was found, the club couldn’t spend any money until the changes had been made official in the USG.

“It wasn’t until November 30 that I received an email saying that they had our officer list and it would be updated within 24 hours. That did not occur until the second week of December.”

With such little time left in the semester, the club was unable to host any events.

Kirnbauer recognized this problem and senators were asked to vote to reconsider the cut to the Meteorology Club’s budget. The vote did not carry.

In addition to club funding issues, the senate also discussed the following:

Kia Valkonen was confirmed as the Supervisor of Tutors and Matthew Merensky as the Student Liaison. Merensky will be, among other things, responsible for pairing students with tutors.

Senator Anna Lubitz wrote a resolution criticizing the administration for its changes to the Stony Brook Academic Calendar, but a vote on the resolution was postponed until next week. According to the calendar, students will not get off for Rosh Hashanah next year. The resolution, a copy of which was provided at the meeting, comes out against both the decision and the lack of student input the administration sought in making it. At the suggestion of Vice President of Academic Affairs Adil Hussain, the bill was not passed this week in an effort to allow USG representatives more time to talk to the administration.

The club budgeting season is just around the corner. Expect a more deliberate budgeting process and an improved Allocate this time around.

The new clubs on SCC funding are the American Red Cross, the Golf Club, Hairitage, the Photography Club, and the Stony Brook Pre-Vet Society.