Finance board's travel fund runs dry

Mike Terry
News Reporter

Finance Board Chair Rick Box announced Friday that the finance board has reached its funding limit for the current fiscal year and is no longer accepting travel requests from student organizations.

The board, which traditionally funds travel requests on a first-come, first-serve basis, will be looking into possible changes to the funding manual that would lower the number of travel requests in the future.

One possibility would be the elimination of travel request funding for all single-sex organizations, including fraternities and sororities.

According to Kimmel Leadership Center Director Steve Sperotto, continuing to fund single-sex organizations could even be a violation of Illinois law.

This realization could potentially cause problems for the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, which will be seeking final approval at Friday's senate meeting for its request of $425 to attend the 61st Annual Regional Conference in Chicago.

"I'm definitely going to raise this issue at the meeting," said Senator Erik Jones, who voted against the request with board member Andrew Sanders.

The board also discussed finding new ways to certify that each person funded for a travel request uses what they learn for the benefit of the campus.

"These students are supposed to bring what they learned back to campus," Senator Jinnifer Calabrese said. "How many of these organizations do nothing when they get back?"

"If you just go and come back, that defeats the whole purpose of going," board member Felicia Papafio added. The board also approved its final program requests scheduled to take place during the spring semester, due to the 10-week deadline required for requests to be turned into the student government office.

The American Humanics Student Association's request of $6,560 to put on Family Fun Night during spring break was approved by an 8-2 vote, while the Indian Student Association was granted $3,775 by a 9-1 vote to put on India Night.

Unanimous approval was also given to the Wagner Potter's Association for a request of $2,724 to put on a ceramics workshop April 9 and 10 and to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers request of $425 for a trip to the ASME Region VII Regional Student Conference.

According to Box, the board will spend the majority of the remaining semester reviewing annual allocations for student organizations to determine the amount of money each will be allowed for operating expenses during the fall 2001 and spring 2002 semesters.