Student senators want clubs to find primary funding outside of ASUA

Student senators passed an amendment last week that will allow

UA clubs to receive ASUA funding only if they do not get more than $500 from another UA department or organization.

The senate also approved an amendment that will require clubs to fully disclose accurate financial information to the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, including all other ways the club receives funding and how much money they receive, before the senate will consider granting funding.

Student senators hope the new regulations will prevent clubs on campus from going to ASUA as a source of funding first, instead of fundraising, said ASUA Executive Vice President Jennifer Reece.

"This is long overdue," said ASUA Senator Will Harris. "The system was designed to be a secondary source of funding, and it's been abused for so long."

Eight of the 10 student senators voted to pass the initial amendment.

"I think it's a valid way to curve the appropriations board," Harris said. "It's a matter of checks and balances."

The $500 limit will hopefully protect smaller clubs from larger ones who already receive significant amounts of funding from UA departments, Reece said.

"This will be an added filter," she said. "There are still loopholes in the new rules and I left them there on purpose."

Those who opposed the first amendment said it was unnecessary.

But ASUA Senator Adam Bronnenkant said the appropriations board assures the system for funding clubs is not abused.

The appropriations board works to advise the student senate how much money to allocate and which clubs should receive funding.

"The purpose of the appropriations board is to take into account these issues," said appropriations board director Michael Bennett. "It would be better to decide (the amount funded) on a case-by-case basis. I don't think the changes are necessary."

Under the new amendment, clubs such as the Residence Hall Association, which receives significant amounts of money from the university, can still receive funding if they go to ASUA seeking funding for specific halls. Clubs who receive more than $500 from UA departments or colleges can also pair up with another club for an event and possibly receive ASUA funding.

The change will affect at least one club this semester and at least 10 next semester, Reece said.

Bronnenkant worries that if clubs who work under colleges don't get the funding they need from ASUA, or enough from their department, they will disappear.

UA's 35-member anthropology club is one of many clubs that depends heavily on ASUA for funding. The club receives approximately $500 from UA departments and has depended on ASUA for partial funding for several years, said John Olsen, the anthropology club adviser.

"That funding is extremely important to us," Olsen said.

The group uses the funding to facilitate dinners for faculty and students, hold film festivals and for field to archeological sites.

The silver wings club needs ASUA funding to attend a yearly national meeting. At the event, the group represents the university and the ROTC to the air force headquarters.

Although UA departments contribute to the club, Silver Wings still depends a lot on ASUA funding to get them to

the conference each year. Furthermore, it relies on ASUA for 60 percent of its funding,

said Karl Muno, Silver Wings advisor and associate aerospace professor.

Honoraries will be excluded from the new rules, as well as any other academic club or organization. In addition to the first amendment, senators approved another amendment that stated that clubs that lie about their financial information will receive no ASUA funding.

Reece said that this has been a problem for ASUA in the past.