Groups appealing the recently announced Contracted Independent Organization office space allocations made their cases before Student Council last night.
The representative body upheld the office space allocation for the International Relations Organization while agreeing that the Pep Band's office allocations should be reviewed because of the importance the space has to the sustainability forx the band.
"We are a little concerned that the decision was just remanded," Pep Band Director Emma Whyte said. "But we are still pleased that they agreed to reconsider the office allocation."
Whyte added that she would be "very surprised" if the allocation committee did not grant them office space on review.
IRO President Aman George said he was unsatisfied with the results of the meeting. The club was moved from an office in Newcomb Hall to a smaller space it will share with two other groups.
George said the space currently allocated to IRO for the coming year was not adequate to meet the needs of the club.
"We have a large membership, and the activities of our club are closely tied to our office space," George said. "The office serves as our main base of operations, and so it raises a lot of concerns that our office space is limited."
According to George, IRO was granted office space in Lambeth on the condition that they share it with two other groups.
George also said he found the allocations and appeal process to be unclear, pointing to an incident during last night's meeting in which there seemed to be some confusion concerning the proper process by which the representative body approved the allocations.
"I think that it is fairly clear that the process is poorly run," George said. "Student Council spent 40 minutes not even having a clear idea what the procedure was."
George said he hoped the process could be modified so that other groups "don't have to face the hardship that IRO is going to have to face."
According to Whyte, the Pep Band originally appealed Council's decision not to give them office space because of the importance that the office space holds to the existence of the organization.
"It is really important that we have space to store our instruments," Whyte said.
Whyte said she felt the process could have been clearer as well.
Office allocations are decided by a voluntary group of representatives, who review allocation applications and vote on what groups get space and where that space is located, Vice President for Organizations Catherine Tobin said. According to Tobin, 24 groups applied for 14 available spaces this year.
Tobin was unable to give a justification for the original vote to deny the Pep Band and IRO space, saying that since it was done by vote, each member of the committee had his own justifications for the vote. She suggested that any group looking for justification contact individual members of the committee.
Tobin did say the question of whether the space was used for "office space or storage space" was taken into consideration.
Tobin said Student Council's vote to re-evaluate the Pep Band's space allocation will be reviewed in the next week and the committee's decision will be presented at next week's meeting.
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