Members of the Black Student Alliance issued a complaint to Student Council Tuesday night, citing questionable behavior on the part of Council's Appropriations Committee.
The committee oversees allocation of approximately $500,000 to University Contracted Independent Organizations. This past year, CIOs requested a total of over $1.5 million, according to Council Vice President for Organizations Eli DeJarnette.
The BSA requested a total of about $200,000, including roughly $165,000 in expected speaker fees. committee co-chair Connor Fee said.
According to a written statement issued by the BSA to the Council representative body, the alliance objected both to the "tone of the [appropriations] hearing" and to an e-mail sent to the Appropriations Committee by Fee.
In the e-mail, Fee wrote, "Guys, I think we need to set up a preliminary meeting with the BSA and basically tell them to get for real or get lost because there is no way we are going along with what they ask for. And I am not going to let them push me around in appeals..."
BSA Vice President Shealin Smoot said she objected to Fee's e-mail.
"The language and tone of the e-mail was negative," she said. "We feel that we have been singled out."
Council President Daisy Lundy also expressed concern.
"The tone and the nature of the e-mail are troubling," she said.
Fee defended the behavior of the committee.
"The e-mail was meant to be an internal, non-serious, informational way for us to set up a meeting with the BSA," Fee said. "We need to meet with the group so that we don't cut something that's really important to them. I'm working very hard for every student at this school's concerns."
The BSA Executive Board called the behavior of certain committee members "unprofessional" during the appropriations hearing.
According to the written statement, an appropriations committee member asked, "Are you for real?" when he discovered the BSA wanted to attend five conferences.
Dejarnette said it is the Appropriation Committee's job to examine the budgets and requests of every organization.
"We have to scrutinize budgets and organizations," Dejarnette said. "Whether decisions were preconceived is the issue."
Lundy assured members of the BSA that the problem would be addressed.
"The Student Council representative body will take the necessary steps to make sure that our appropriations process is fair and non-confrontational," she said.
Fee said he would help work with the BSA to meet as many of their needs as possible.
"We'll work with them to help them find other sources of funding," he said. "We want to work things out as a group."
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