Author: Martha Carol
The Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) Senate met with student organizations and club leaders on April 5 to discuss changes to the Senate’s funding guidelines.
The Funding Committee, which includes Senator Aliza Goldsmith (sophomore), Senator Alex Stevens (junior) and Senator Kyle Boers (first-year), invited leaders of ASOC-funded clubs – such as the Asian Pacific Islander Association (APIA), the Black Students Alliance (BSA), Vagina Monologues and Pulse – to the lunch meeting to elicit feedback on their tentative plans for funding allocation practices next year.
The next draft of their funding guidelines will be presented to the General Assembly on April 7 at 12:30 p.m. in Johnson 204.
The Senate’s Funding Committee plans to repeal the use of the algorithm, the current basis for it’s funding process, which produces an allocation recommendation for each funding request based upon the type of event and club. The committee is looking to add a more intuitive, human aspect by renovating the current process, said Goldsmith, who is the head of ASOC funding.
Stevens elaborated on the decision. “[Senate] wants to be able to open [the funding process] up and take into account both (a) the unique variables that are present for each club [that wants funding] and (b) we want to be able to have a holistic view of how . . . to prioritize events across the year . . . [Our new budget] is how you normally see budgets presented. The algorithm is just kind of a weird thing,” Stevens said.
Director of Student Life Tamara Rice, who also serves as the Senate’s advisor, agreed that reform was in order. “I do think that ASOC does need to look at how we fund things. There’s currently a rule that we can only fund events that are occurring within the same semester, but I don’t like that because I feel like it really prohibits clubs from planning ahead . . . that doesn’t make sense to me,”she said. The Funding Committee stated that it will be encouraging earlier applications for funding to avoid any last minute funding issues.
Additionally, rather than drawing from its funds throughout the year on a case-by-case basis as it does now, the Funding Committee compiled a preliminary budget to divide its money between different classifications of anticipated funding requests.
The Funding Committee’s current plan includes nine classes of funding, out of which the Senate will allocate money. Organizations and clubs will be able to apply for funding within the Social Events, Established Annual Events, Service Focused Events, Club Meetings and Annual Organization Growth categories. A club’s request can only be considered under one of these classes unless the request is also eligible for the Supplementary Service Funding. Supplementary Service Funding is intended as an incentive for clubs to support charitable causes.
The Funding Committee also set aside separate allocations of funding for club sports to avoid liability, funding for cultural graduation programs to maintain these events as a separate established annual event, and funding for publications to avoid bias.
To supplement each of these categories, the Funding Committee defined criteria that a club and its planned event or activity must meet before being allocated any funding. Once a request is categorized within the budget, the Senate will review the funding request in terms of predetermined priorities, such as extended student involvement, advertising practices, cultural or academic value and other metrics designed to ensure accountability.
Student club representatives seemed to approve of the potential changes, said Stevens.
APIA representatives Michelle Morioka (sophomore) and Whitney Tsai (junior) said they supported the presented changes but expressed concern for the actual funding request process, which has not yet been modified.
“That is the important part,” Morioka said.
Additional reporting by Laura Bertocci
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