UW-Milwaukee Student Association Funds Religious Group, Army, Guitar Club

A Student Association committee at UW-Milwaukee approved a total of just over $28,514 in grant money Oct. 17 to 10 organizations on campus, funding everything from conferences to office supplies for groups including the U.S. Army, a religious organization and guitar club.

The committee awarded grants to fund trips to various conferences and other events (things such as airfare, rental cars, event registration fees, lodging, etc.), organize, market and put on student organization events, operational items such as office supplies, and bringing guest speakers and performers to campus.

At the grant hearings, representatives from student organizations stood in front of the Student Appropriations Committee and explained their organizations and what their grants were going to be used for.

According to an email interview with Poawit Yang, the business manager at UWM’s Student Involvement Office, the money awarded in grants come from a portion of students’ segregated fees.

“SAC allocates about $300,000 a semester to student organizations,” Yang said. “This amount fluctuates slightly depending on the requests from the student orgs but has been fairly steady for the last two years.”  He also said that all “registered student organizations” are eligible to apply and that one-third out of the estimated 300 student organizations applied and were approved.

Some requests that received funding at the Oct. 17 meeting, according to the meeting minutes, were:

• Army ROTC – a trip to participate in the Army Marathon. ROTC received a total of $1,800, including $1,000 for airfare, $480 for lodging and $400 for registration
• Guitar Organization at UWM. The organization received a total of $10,960.65 for four grants. The money was roughly divided among three concerts and master class events (Gaelle Solal, Raphaella Smits, and Xuefei Yang), as well as $1,640 to travel to the Walnut Creek Guitar Festival. The concert and master class events were all approved “pending provision of further market value justification to student involvement…” according to the meeting minutes. In the meeting, committee member said groups need to demonstrate the charges were consistent with pay the artist received at other performances.
• Disciples Today – According to the Disciples Today orgsync page, they are a Christian organization that “is a positive influence on campus; both helping people to become Christians as well as helping Christians become more mature in their relationship with God.” The organization was approved for a total of $1,553.74 for items such as office supplies, DTV Media books, games, misc. costs, Amazon books, and marketing, according to meeting minutes.
• Atmospheric Science Club was approved for $2,200 to travel to the American Meteorological Society Conference, which included $1,000 for airfare, $400 for registration and $800 for lodging.

Items in the meeting that were not approved were food and beverage items that were a part of a grant for Association of Graduate Students in Psychology Research Symposium. According to meeting minutes, “food cannot be funded per SAC bylaws.” Also not funded under the Guitar Association travel grant to the Walnut Creek Guitar Festival was the registration fee as there was no justification for it, according to the meeting minutes.

In order to get a grant approved by SAC, student organizations have to complete a three-step process before the money comes in. According to the Student Organization Funding page on the SA’s website, “Registered Student Organizations” have to attend a RSO Grant Training Session. These sessions are mandatory and dates for this semester were scattered throughout September until Oct. 1. Second, the RSO completes the grant application. This semester, it opened Sept. 22 at 5 p.m. and closed on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. The third step is to sign up for a grant hearing, like this one, with dates through October and November.

According to the Student Organization Funding page on the SA’s website, organizations can apply for Travel Grants, Operations Grants, Event Grants, or Emergency Grants. Following the presentation, the committee asks questions about the organization and the grants they applied for. Lastly, the committee votes on the approval of the grant. After approval, according to the Student Organization Funding page, “Preliminary allocations will be adjusted so that all allocations will fit into the SAC Budget.”

“I’m just really glad that I can, help, do my part in helping fund organizations to further what their personal missions are,” said Sarah Dadrass, the student organization appropriations director. “I’m glad that we can help and get diversity across campus and get as many people as involved with all of the events and different grants that they’re funding.”

UWM student reaction was different when told that grants to organizations partially funded with their money.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” said UWM Student Arblia Xiong. “…I think it is actually a really good thing, I think, because… we don’t get that much opportunity to get speakers, like good speakers to come in…” she added.

Answers were similar between undergraduate and graduate students.

“I think that it’s important that a university brings in a broad scope of influences and perspectives,” said Nick DeMarsh, a UWM Graduate Student. “And I think that the work that’s done through funding different performers, etc. to come to campus is really helpful and adding, I guess, both content and even goes as far as to say a different flavor to the educational atmosphere here at UW-Milwaukee.”