The 606 Student Activity Committee discussed how funding would be handled for several student organizations at Tuesday’s SGA meeting.
Student activity funding comes from a fee paid by every student at registration and is distributed by the SGA to student organizations through the 606 committee meetings.
Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislation, one of the organizations pulled for discussion, had not yet begun fundraising required for a meeting in Nashville scheduled for Nov. 10. The trip would span a period of four days and include a hotel fee of $175 a night per room. The shortage in fundraising for the event was attributed to an unexpected change of deadline.
“We just found out recently that the rules had been changed and the money was due Oct. 1,” said TISL member Tiffany Border. “There would be no way to raise that sort of money in that amount of time.”
TISL members believed that whether or not the meeting was attended could have a great effect on the student body and requested an extra $2,000 in funding. The motion failed, but another motion for $1,000 passed.
The Student Painting and Drawing Association, also pulled for discussion, plans to bring artist Lisa Sanditz on campus to give a painting lecture. No funding has been obtained, however, because the organization has yet to receive any information beyond the name of the artist and is working under short notice.
Suggestions were made that the SPDA was about to lose organization status, but these were put aside by SGA advisor Dr. Sally Lee, who said it was only a matter of incomplete paperwork and that the organization was not going to lose status. After some consideration, however, no funding was approved for the event.
Extra funding was given to the Inter-Fraternity Council to bring public speaker Mark Sterner on campus to speak about driving under the influence.
Members explained that the shortage in funding was due to the fact that Sterner was a very important speaker and could not be booked until the last minute.
The event was given an exceptional benefit, which is a sum requiring two-thirds of the Senate vote. Anything over $2,200 is considered an exceptional benefit, and in this case, the IFC was granted $2,500.
Kappa Delta raised half of the funds to bring speaker David Coleman to campus to give a speech titled “Making Relationships Matter,” but still needed a large sum. The event was also given an exceptional benefit of $2,726.
An exceptional benefit of $4,001 was given to Alpha Delta Pi after some controversy. The organization plans to bring Survivor winner Tina Wesson to campus to talk about the impact the TV show has had on her life.
“This is a lot to spend out of student funds for someone to speak about their Survivor experience,” said Brandi Garner, chair of the 606 committee.
Other members disagreed.
“I think we should front half the money for the event,” said SGA President Ethan Flynn. “If there weren’t a high demand for the event, we would simply get our money back. If you want to have life on this campus, it’s not too much to ask for something like this.”

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