During the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming meeting on Nov. 28, requests for funding came from the Bangladesh Students’ Association at the University of Wyoming and Students Supporting Veterans and an appeal from Turning Point USA on the suspension of their funds until 2020.
The Bangladesh Students’ Association approached the RSO funding board for $4,490 to fund their Bangladesh Night 2018, which happens on Mar. 10. The president of the Bangladesh Students’ Association, Rajib Roy, said that this event will be a good opportunity to bring more diversity to campus and provide more information for students who would wish to travel abroad to Bangladesh
With a few line item changes that applied the Bangladesh Students’ Association’s outside funding to them, including flowers, balloons and other miscellaneous items, the funding request was approved unanimously.
The second funding request was from Students Supporting Veterans for their annual event, Combat Color, for $6,988. However, there were many items that the funding board wanted to cut and part of the financial policy that they would violate.
Luke Cloud, the event planner and veteran, said, “It’s just like a color run, but you get to throw the color back. So think of it like a game of color tag.”
Any proceeds from the event would go towards setting up a scholarship.
“It benefits actually, Connor Montgomery Cloud, our brother who died, memorial scholarship for veterans,” Cloud said.
The items that would be cut would have been money to pay for a rental truck, Facebook advertisements, photography and miscellaneous items.
There was another issue that would bar them from receiving any of the funds.
“We recommended that students should not be required to pay,” Alex Mulhall, chair of the RSO Funding Board, said. “But that a suggested donation would be acceptable.”
According to the ASUW Finance Policy, “RSOs may not generate any revenue through charging admission or registration fees to students.”
Meaning that Students Supporting Veterans (SSV) could not receive any funding from ASUW, unless ASUW senate voted to wave that part of the finance policy.
Cloud asked the senate to not cut any of the funds, and for them to waive that part of the finance policy as they had for the previous two years. Cloud said, repeatedly, that they would not be able raise enough funds to pay for the scholarship without charging for tickets.
After a failed attempt to waive the financial policy, the senate ultimately voted to not fund the event, so that SSV could come back with another proposal that would work within the financial policy.
The last piece of discussion on RSO funding, was Keatan Metcalf’s, a Senator of the College of Engineering, appeal to reduce the punishment on TPUSA.
Metcalf said, “I am mostly concerned about the severity of this punishment, for such a young RSO that has only existed for a few months, and mind you is completely new to all this. I do indeed think that negligence from a young organization should not be the definitive component in making such a resolute statement.”
TPUSA was facing suspension of funds until 2020 over violations of the finance policy when they hosted Dennis Prager. These violations were putting up posters without the ASUW logo, using Eventbrite instead of the university ticket offices and not using scanners that would prioritize students over community members for the event.
While there was a large amount of debate over the appeal, it ultimately failed and TPUSA will be facing the full punishment of no ASUW funding until fiscal year 2020.
