Funding doesn’t match: Large appropriation to Carolina Students for Life doesn’t accurately re?ect state of abortion debate

Student Congress was a little too generous in appropriating $9,675 dollars to Carolina Students for Life.

Congress granted the money to the group to help fund its event, the “Best Abortion Discussion Ever.”

Although Congress cut the group’s original funding request of almost $16,500 nearly in half, the end amount is still too much.

Congress originally allocated $8,350 to the group. But Carolina Students for Life came back to Congress the night of the event and procured another $1,325.

“In my personal opinion we shouldn’t have considered them twice for funding,” said Joe Levin-Manning, the speaker of Congress.

So it’s unclear why they did.

The event cost roughly $70 per person, and the group estimated a turnout of about 500 students. Only 138 people showed up.

The Student Code states that Congress cannot take a group’s viewpoint into consideration when deciding how much money it should allocate.

But this isn’t about viewpoints. The fact that the event hosted only 138 attendees is indicative of declining interest in the issue of abortion.

The Code sets priorities for how student groups should be funded. Groups that are funded directly from student fees get top priority.

Next come student groups that have broad interest or appeal to a substantial portion of the student body.

As the eighth highest funded student organization on campus, Carolina Students for Life is currently funded under this second priority.

But the maelstrom of controversy that ensued after Roe v. Wade in 1973 has not enveloped the current generation of university students like it has in the past.

Abortion is still a highly charged issue that elicits strong responses on both sides. Nobody is arguing that it is not a controversial or important issue.

But it’s an issue that has increasingly little immediacy or relevancy for this generation, which has little interest in reigniting the culture wars of earlier generations.

Student funding needs to start reflecting that fact.