The Student Government Association dealt with appropriations of 606 funding to special events requested by several student organizations on Tuesday.
The SGA committee, which deals with 606 funding requests, presented a list of 12 events where 606 funding was requested.
Eight of these requests were approved without debate, including $830 for the Cycling Club to attend the NCAA National Mountain Bike Championship on Nov. 3 and 4, $128 for the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance to attend the Tennessee NOW state conference, $500 for Alpha Delta Pi to host a Battle of the Bands event at ETSU to help fight Breast Cancer, and $462 for the Student Nurses Association to attend the National Student Nurses Association mid-year Conference.
Four other student organizations received no funding without debate by the SGA. These student organizations are the Physical Education Majors Club, History Society, Respiratory Therapy Association and the Gaming Society.
Four items were pulled from the list for further debate, including Faith and Family night, a Black Affairs event to bring Maya Angelou to campus, funding for a Campus Crusade for Christ event in Greensboro, N.C., and a Public Relations Student Society Association trip to a conference in New York City.
The Campus Crusade for Christ had been given no funding by the committee. When questioned, the funding committee chair said “the highest priority was to fund events that would be available for students here on campus,” and that the committee felt that a trip for 15 people to a Christmas Conference in Greensboro was not an effective use of 606 money. After short debate, the senate voted to not fund the Campus Crusade for Christ trip.
The senate had a lengthy discussion about whether to fund a Public Relations Student Society request for four students to attend the Public Relations Student Society of America National Conference. Again, the committee said that they decided to not fund the trip because it would send a few students to a conference, where there would be minimal enrichment of overall student life on campus. Representatives from PRSSA disputed this claim, and said that the organization wanted to see “student life maximized on this campus.”
The PRSSA also stated that their academic department had no funding for the event, and that fundraising had only yielded $150, about 60 percent of the registration fee of one student.
Most of the discussion dealt with keeping consistency in how the committee funds trips to conferences by other campus organizations. One senator remarked that the senate “appropriated $462 to the Student Nurses Association to go to a conference. This seems like the same thing.” Other senators disagreed, citing that they had just previously denied funding to the Campus Crusade for Christ for a trip.
The funding committee appropriated $5,000 to Black Affairs to help bring Maya Angelou to campus. Since more than $2,250 was allocated, this item was automatically opened for further debate.
Funding for the Maya Angelou event had to pass several procedural hurdles. Since Black Affairs had also received funding for the event through the Student Activity Allocation Commission, the SGA is not allowed to fund the event using 606 funds unless the event is “an unforeseeable campus opportunity or emergency.”
Black Affairs representatives tried to stress how big of an event the Maya Angelou presentation would be, not only for people around campus, but for students as well.
“If we could get the Dome, the Dome would be filled, not only by the community, but by the students at the school as well,” they said. They also argued that it was an “unforeseen event or emergency” because Maya Angelou was moving to the West Coast following this semester, which would add nearly $10,000 to the cost of bringing her to campus after this semester.
The senate agreed that the Maya Angelou event could be considered an “unforeseen event or emergency,” voting 10 yes and 4 no.
Funding for the event was also approved as an “exceptional benefit” to the student body so that more than $2,250 could be appropriated.
With time running out during the Senate session, discussion on funding for the SGA Faith and Family night event was delayed until the next meeting on Oct. 26. Discussion on turnitin.com was also delayed until that meeting.

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