Members of the United Student Government (USG) thanked specific clubs for their presence and stressed the importance of attendance Monday during the allocations of funds for the second half of the semester.
“It really looks good on you guys when you show up,” said USG Treasurer Thaddeus Covaleski. “Rugby Club is always here, Slow Clap is always here, and I want you to know we take into account your presence at these meetings.”
Among these club leaders was senior broadcast journalism major and vice president of the Rugby Club Nathan Keenan. Because of his attendance, he was able to answer some questions that USG members had about where the money would specifically be going regarding their Highway Cleanup project, where they received all $150 they asked for.
“We adopted a highway through the Pennsylvania Adopt A Highway program, and we are essentially requesting money for the transportation to and from the destination, which is about an hour or hour and a half away,” Keenan said.
Although they may have received partial funding for their cleanup project, the budget was completely cut for their bone marrow drive. Covaleski addressed the matter, asking members to be patient, because the funding for this event is an ongoing process.
“We are going to be continuing talks with the Rugby team and a couple of the other possible funding sources within the University to try and make this happen,” Covaleski said. “Please don’t think that we are heartless because we cut this. We just don’t have the funds to make this happen at the moment.”
Senator Nick Moran added to what Covaleski had to say about the event, stating that they needed to save money for other services the Rugby Club needed.
“We cut that event completely so we could leave money open to them to go to and from their actual games,” Moran said on Monday.
Eliminating this event cut the Rugby team’s budget almost in half with the help of reducing money for their away jerseys.
A total of 24 clubs requested funding this period, which is less than the average number in previous semesters. Covaleski said that number was six or seven clubs shy of what they normally get, but some clubs failed to provide a budget by the allotted time.
Just some of the clubs that did not reach out for funding were Global Cultural Studies (GCS), Her Campus and Student Photojournalist Union. These three groups received funding for the first funding period.
The initial proposed amount that USG received from clubs was nearly $40,000, but the actual amount they could allocate is $18,440. Because of rollbacks, this number is only a few thousand dollars short of what was given out during the first funding period this semester.
Club leaders from the newly reformed Veterans Club were also in attendance to see what funds would be allocated to them for their first official funding period. They were among the clubs who requested the most amount of funding, asking for almost $5,000, but were granted only $1,400 of that desired amount. They will be using this money for guest speakers, fundraising supplies and a memorial event.
The Honors Student Organization (HSO) also faced major cuts, asking for $3,160 but only receiving $1,970. The club recently used $500 for students to attend the Alternative Spring Break in New York City.
The money that these clubs do not use will rollback to USG at the end of the semester. This number is not to be confused with the money that is raised by the clubs themselves.
