Senate and Wildlife Club in allocation dispute

Student Senate allocated a total of $2,575 between the Wildlife Club and a virtual conference for students at its Monday meeting. 

The Wildlife Club requested $825 for a year-end pizza party which will occur near the end of the semester. The Activity Fee Board stipulated that the event must be open to all students rather than only club members.  

“AFB precedents actually cap event prizes at $300 per event. But, with COVID-19, we wanted students to be able to enjoy any events they could have on campus, hence why we recommended approval for the whole amount requested after putting the condition to have the event open to all students,” AFB co-chair Feven Hailemariam said.

The Wildlife Club said it intended to have the event open to club members only, and the conditional mandate placed on the event by Student Senate on Monday came as a surprise. The club president said he attended the Monday senate meeting via Zoom after hearing an allocation vote would be taking place but said poor streaming quality of the meeting interrupted his audio.  

“So, we were on the Zoom and we had no knowledge whatsoever of the stipulation going into the meeting. It was kind of just to say: Here, you got the money, but this is our stipulation for you,” Justin Gress, President of the Wildlife Club said.  

Senate President Lily Umeta also weighed in on the club allocation. 

“We try to invite club executive members to the senate meeting so we can work better on these kinds of things. Zoom provides a great option but unfortunately sometimes the connection also hinders communication. However, I wish he said something about it in the Zoom chat,” Umeta said.  

The club and senate have options moving forward, depending on if Wildlife Club chooses to comply with the mandate or keep the event open to club members only.  

“If the club refuses to open the event, then the club can choose to submit a new additional request packet or appeal our decision. In whichever option the club wishes to procced with, senate has the right to revoke or change the funding approved,” Hailemariam said.  

“I think we are going to try and appeal it and say why we asked for so much because last year we got cancelled because of COVID,” Gress said. “We were going to try and more or less double up on all the stuff members would get to help the people from last year who are still members this year, and make it a bigger event for returning members and new members who have been consistently proactive in the club. I want to give back to them.” 

President Umeta said AFB doesn’t ordinarily allocate any prize money for club events not open to all students, and that the $694 of allocated prize money for Wildlife Club’s event is a high dollar amount at $15.42 per person, if all 45 club members attend.  

Still, according to Gress, the event will remain open to only club members even if he must accept a lower amount, possibly the $300 for prizes, from senate.  

“It will be private regardless of whether we get the money from them or not,” Gress said. “We feel like we would be taking away from the Wildlife Club members because this is their event and our way to give back to them as officers.”

In a separate matter, senate allocated money to Associate Professor of Communication Shaunda French-Collins for students to attend a virtual conference normally held in-person in Omaha.  

The $1,750 requested by French-Collins will be used to buy 25 student tickets to the Meet the Pros virtual event. French-Collins pitched the event to Student Senate last week and then presented the allocation request to AFB for approval.  

A ticket to the two-day event on March 1 and 2 costs $70. At the event, students studying communication, advertising, and graphic design will meet with professionals in their field of study and also  have them review their resumes and portfolios. 

In other news: 

> Student Senate had $27, 249. 66 in unallocated funds. 

> Student Senate had $30, 000. 00 in unallocated trip funds.