Student Association backed the Finance Board’s decision to require University Union to find a cheaper artist to perform at MayFest 2011 before receiving funding. It also granted UU approximately $20,000 less than requested for its spring 2011 Block Party concert.

SA drew three times the number of students normally in attendance at its meetings into Maxwell Auditorium for its budget meeting Monday night. At the meeting, SA also voted to give the National Pan-Hellenic Council about $20,000 less than it requested to put on its Greek Unity Fest Concert, which has brought artists T-Pain and Jadakiss to campus in its past two years.

SA also backed the Finance Board’s recommendation not to grant Hillel’s request for about $60,000 to hold its 60th anniversary concert next semester. This is the second time Hillel has been denied funding for the event.

Student organizations that received partial or no funding have a chance to appeal for a part of the $40,000 the Finance Board has set aside for appeals.

More than 115 student organization leaders attended the meeting to hear whether SA’s general assembly would approve the funding SA’s Finance Board recommended for their groups. The Finance Board received $1.33 million in requests for funding for spring 2011 programs. It has $75,000 available.

‘It always seems we get double in requests what we have to hand out,’ Comptroller Jeff Rickert said.

The Finance Board, made up of seven students, looks at what the events will bring to the campus as a whole and the cost per student of the events in making decisions to fully, partially or not fund programming, he said.

When an organization’s proposed event looks like it will cost more than $40 per student, the Finance Board usually does not recommend granting the total amount of money requested, Rickert said.

UU did not get the funding it asked for to host its concert during MayFest – close to $24,500 – because the board felt a musical artist costing $5,000 to $10,000 cheaper would not keep students away from the event, Rickert said.

Block Party also did not receive the total amount requested, $273,081, because UU said it is willing to put its own $25,000 toward the event, according to the budget bill.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council, composed mostly of minority greek organizations, was denied the $20,000 increase in funding from last year that it requested to put on its annual Greek Unity Fest Concert.

Joel Sloly, the council’s representative at the meeting, said: ‘$20,000 less just means we have to work harder in finding a top-tier artist that will cater to the majority of the Syracuse community.’

abknox@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm