A resolution to grant University Union yearly funding passed at Student Association’s Monday night meeting.

UU, Syracuse University’s biggest and most funded programming organization, can now apply for funding on a yearly basis, leaving $10,000 to $20,000 open to other smaller student organizations to apply for.

Six other student organizations can request yearly budgets: SA, Student Legal Services, SU Ambulance, CitrusTV, WERW and Z89. Unlike UU, these organizations receive funding for their operating expenses, not programming ones.

Like most student organizations, UU has traditionally applied for its share of the student fee — the $185 built into each student’s tuition that gets funneled to student organizations — on a semester-by-semester basis.

The resolution also makes UU the Official Programming Board of the university, giving it more financial autonomy and more flexibility in booking artists and reserving venues.

For UU, getting the go-ahead to collect its funding for the entire year at once means booking bigger acts earlier and cheaper.

‘The ability to book early is paramount,’ said Andrew Beyda, UU president.

Beyda said UU usually books bands and musical artists for Block Party, the organization’s spring concert in the Carrier Dome, in the February or March before the event. The change in the funding process will allow UU to book Block Party acts over the summer and secure harder-to-get names on the ticket for the April concert.

The change means ‘we’re getting better artists before other colleges can get them,’ Beyda said.

The advanced booking would also take down the cost of the event by $10,000 to $20,000. The amount does not make up a large portion of the UU budget but could impact a lot of smaller campus organizations, Beyda said.

SA president Jon Barnhart said SA’s intent in changing UU’s funding process was to draw down the cost of Block Party and leave more money available to other organizations.

The switch to a yearly budget for UU has been in talks for more than a decade, Beyda and Barnhart said. Barnhart said he remembered SA talking about the new office since he joined the association in fall 2008.

As the Official Programming Board, UU will be the go-to contact for talent agencies calling the university for all large-scale programming, Barnhart said. In the past, the Office of Student Activities has received an average of 17 phone calls a day from talent agencies looking to plan university events, and there is often confusion about where to direct the calls. Barnhart said these experiences helped SA recognize the need to create the new office.

With UU doing the programming, the job will be able to be done without increasing the student fee, Barnhart said.

UU has been doing the job of scheduling large-scale events for some time, Barnhart said. The resolution now makes the position official.

Barnhart said: ‘UU goes the extra mile to put on the biggest and the best programming on campus.’

abknox@syr.edu

Published on November 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm