Council representatives had an extended night of listening to 11 Contracted Independent Organizations' appropriations appeals Tuesday.
These organizations appealed their defunded status or the money allocations given to them by the Student Council Appropriations Committee. A group has defunded status if it fails to attend the mandatory meetings or hearings conducted by Council.
The Committee is charged with the responsibility of distributing the student activity fee funds to the CIOs. Allocations were distributed on March 30 and decisions were based on Council bylaws.
After appeals, the four defunded groups were allowed to continue with the appropriations process.
"We have four groups that were readmitted to the process," Committee Chairman Patrick McCreesh said.
The groups are Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, Virginia College Men's Rugby Club, Virginia Society of Law and Technology, and Black Business Student Forum.
The four CIOs originally were defunded because they did not to attend a mandatory meeting during the process.
Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law argued that miscommunication between it and the Committee caused the CIO to miss its mandatory hearing with Council.
"You can't expect people to abide by the requirements if they are not armed up front with the information," Law School representative Lesley Pate said.
McCreesh said he believes that Council's decision to overturn the Committee's judgment and readmit all of the CIOs to the process was fair.
"My personal opinion is that Student Council handled things correctly by letting the student groups back into the process," McCreesh said. "Council needs to reexamine their own bylaws because there's a lot of stuff that isn't stated clearly."
This was exemplified in the Virginia College Men's Rugby Club appeal. The club was denied funding because they duplicated the purpose of another on-Grounds rugby club, which violates the bylaws.
"Our purpose is just as different from the women's team as the other men's team," said Chris Ganske, treasurer of Virginia College Men's Rugby Club during his appeal.
Four of the other appealing CIOs - Blue Notes, Darden Sports and Entertainment Management Club, Consortium of University Publications, and University Democrats - received their full appealed amount.
Council granted Orthodox Christian Fellowship half of its requested amount. Circle K and the Compound Word were not allocated any of the sums they were appealing.
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