With one month and a half left in the 2022-2023 academic year, ASUW’s ever-popular Student Organization Funding Board has almost run out of money. Senators and Pro staff members are currently examining how this issue came about, and what can be done to keep it from happening again.
Since the start of the semester, The Student Organization Funding Board (SOFB) has recommended a due pass for every request submitted, and the ASUW government has passed each one by almost unanimous vote.
In the Month of January alone, ASUW received and passed more funding board requests than during the entirety of the Fall semester. This triumph for student organizations has also created worry among senators for the fate of events yet to come. Many among ASUW believe the body should be more critical in its funding.
First-Year Senator Carter Worcester is running a campaign to address issues within SOFB and make it as effective as possible. He described a lack of willingness to look critically at line items in funding requests.
“We’ll give out like $500 for plastic utensils when 50 bucks are necessary. Or we will spend $15,000 on events, prioritizing it not because it’s particularly special, but because it was first come.”
This is the first time in three years that ASUW has depleted its funds for organizations and events. The current SOFB policy does operate on a first come first serve basis with $10,000 available for each student organization, which Worcester believes to be a problematic model.
“Not only does it mean we run out of money, but there are plenty of events that come later, that cannot come earlier, that we’re not able to fund. Cinco de Mayo celebrations are fantastic examples. By the time you get to the fifth of May, the student organizations funding board every year has already gone out of funding.”
As a member of the Latinx community, this example is especially significant to the senator. He added that, “it reduces our diversity and allows for multiple general issues within ASUW, and as a university as a whole. Only because we’re not careful with our money.”
Senator Tanner Ewalt sees the issue as a “self-eating problem,” wherein events struggle in attendance and then need more money in marketing and resources.
“Our hope is that next year, we can really try to encourage and connect student organizations with external sources of funding so that they can continue. Trying to get [SOFB funds] to run out slower is going to be a lot of work.” said Ewalt.
“It might be looking into our fiscal policy, and maybe shifting some things to be a little more stringent. And it might just be shifting student orgs who maybe can get their funding from other places.
For the fiscal year 2024, SOFB is budgeted at $159,235, the largest balance in the entire ASUW budget for programs. Ewalt and others expressed a commitment to keeping SOFB highly funded as it represents a tangible avenue to use student dollars in ways that directly impact students and the UW community.
However, First Year Senator Aidan Mcguire agreed that a more critical eye was necessary to maintain the work of SOFB. He would like see a funding maximum put in place.
“I absolutely think we need to support student organizations, but if we were to institute some sort of maximum, spending $8,000 on any single event, with a large degree of oversight, we would still have somewhere around $30,000 For the rest of the school year to continue supporting events.”
“But because we have no limits on that, and because every event is approved without hesitation and oversight, we’re out of money.”
Anthony Castronovo, current chair of the Student Organization Funding Board was contacted for comment and clarification. The BI is currently waiting for a response.
