Twenty-two Contracted Independent Organizations yesterday filed appeals with Student Council asking for additional Student Activity Fee funds.
The College Republicans, the Virginia Women's Chorus, the University Dance Club and the Chinese Student Association were among those CIOs ready to appeal the Appropriations Committee's funding decision.
The Committee allocates money to student groups from the Student Activity Fee Fund - a $39 fee tacked onto each student's tuition. The Committee allocated a total of $450,072 to 158 CIOs.
Jamey Thompson, Council vice president for organizations, and John Finley, former Committee chairman and current Council chief financial officer, said the number of appeals filed this year is slightly higher than usual, but it does not represent a substantial increase. Last year 12 student groups appealed the Committee allocations.
Finley said there are several reasons why the Committee might allocate less money to a student group than the organization originally requested.
"The Committee may feel that a particular item is not essential enough to a group's function, or we may feel that the numbers were inflated," Finley said. "Inflated numbers are the main reason that there is so much unspent money every year" in the SAF fund.
In 1999, CIOs returned over $130,000 in SAF monies.
The Committee may request that an organization do more fundraising to cover costs, he added.
Organizations that have filed an intent to appeal must submit 31 copies of a formal appeal, the original budget submitted to the Committee, and any additional information that could help their case. Each Council member is given a copy of the appeal.
Hearings for the organizations will be held April 25 before the representative body of Council.
If a CIO is not satisfied with the Committee's decision, it can appeal to the Student Activity Committee. William W. Harmon, vice president for student affairs, oversees the committee.
The Hong Kong Student Association filed an appeal after the Committee granted $404 of the $1,023.97 the organization requested.
HKSA President Vivien Lau said the organization has not yet been able to raise enough funds on its own to meet costs.
The funds the Committee granted "are not enough. We have three major events coming up at the beginning of next semester," Lau said, calling the Committee's allocations "not very reasonable."
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