This week’s Student Government Association meeting included one of the most important issues of the year – BUC Fund.
The allocation of these funds plays an enormous role in what campus events are seen throughout the year. According to Secretary of Allocations Dustin Gilmer, SGA has somewhat less than $130,000 to dispense this year.
As of Tuesday’s meeting, $30,400 of that money is already gone. Roughly 10 percent of the budget, as one senator pointed out, went to the BUC Anime Club for ETSU Con.
However, in the five years the Con has been presented, the money taken from the fund has been consistently and fully paid back.
SGA Secretary Emily Marmon’s minutes for the meeting also state that, “ETSU Con attracts future students, community members and brings attention to the area that may normally not reach it.”
With over 1,000 attendees last year, it is by far one of ETSU’s most popular events.
In an apparent first, three organizations each asked for money for the same event, with intent to collaborate the amounts allotted.
The National Panhellenic Council, Interfraternity Council and the Office of Fraternities and Sororities were all granted the full amounts asked for — $5,700, $5,700 and $4,000, respectively. This money will be used to send Greek Life students to a leadership summit.
The only application not given the full amount asked for was the Office of Multicultural Affair’s Native American Festival.
It was given $3,000 of the requested $11,460, with senators citing the timing of the event as the reason for the cut.
As a campus that only barely edges out of commuter status, with roughly 6,000 students within walking distance of campus according to Dean of Students Jeff Howard, there were fears that attendance would be poor.
One request, the Student Photography Association, was denied any funding at all because the application violated Title IV of the SGA Constitution.
Last week’s legislation, the removal of comedians from their own genre to the category of “other,” was passed without discussion.
On the whole, everyone from President Pooja Shah to Attorney General Hunter Shipley agreed the meeting went exceptionally smooth and congratulated everyone on getting through the first BUC Fund meeting of the semester.
