Bills Pass to Fund Student Groups

Despite a marked shortage of remaining funds, Student Congress managed to allocate a portion of its shrinking coffers to campus groups with little disagreement Monday night.

Congress began the session with $9,567.15 in student group funding for the rest of the semester. They passed bills allotting more than $3,000 to such organizations as Carolina Production Guild, Masala, Carolina Athletic Association and the Self-Knowledge Symposium.

Due to a shortage of funds this year, Congress members have been forced to dole out money with additional scrutiny.

But during Monday night's meeting, Student Body Treasurer Patrick Frye warned Congress members not to be overly cautious.

"A better scenario would be for you to be broke after fairly treating every group."

The main benefactor was the Carolina Production Guild, which received $1,845 to fund 39 independent student films this semester.

The meeting was largely noncontentious until the discussion about a bill to fund the Fellowship of Christian Asian Students.

FOCAS members asked for $77.20 to fund a weekly newsletter for its members.

Several members of Congress argued that the newsletter needed to be posted publicly to receive funding.

"Having public access to it shows that we've made the attempt to bring this to the community," said Rep. David Seymour, Dist. 17.

Some Congress members disagreed, saying FOCAS members have the right to distribute their own newsletter however they wish.

The bill finally passed by a narrow margin, with only 14 out of 22 representatives voting in favor.

Speaker Pro Tem Sandi Chapman warned Congress members against letting sympathy influence their decision.

"It's very difficult to make decisions that we feel like make people feel bad," Chapman said. "But we really have to work on precedent."

Two bills were postponed, one for an appropriation to the Hellenic Student Association and the other for the Association of English Majors.

Several bills also were passed that did not allocate money. One changed the manner in which Student Television gets its funding approved, and another strengthened the wording of the Student Code which prevents Congress from making donations.

Masala, a group that received money last night, plans to use the funds to put on a fashion show for UNC students.

Despite only receiving partial funding, the group is pleased, said Co-President Azadeh Rezvani. She said that without the funding, Masala would have still been able to have the show, but it would not have been up to the standard of last year's.

"This should be sufficient," said Rezvani, a senior sociology and psychology major. "I mean, we wish we could get more, but we're happy with the amount we got tonight."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.