Representatives of nine student clubs and organizations met with the AU Club Council on Saturday to appeal the Council's decisions concerning each group's funding for the new school year.
"The clubs had about two weeks to appeal their allocations," Council Chair Evan Wagner said. "Nine clubs did and all nine clubs received additional funding."
The nine clubs were the A-Team, Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, College Democrats, College Libertarians, Democracy Matters, International Development Program Student Association, Latino and American Student Organization, the Student Alumni Association and MoGIT, a Kogod School of Business club.
Chi Alpha President Jared Pincin said he was happy with the appeal process and thought the Council was fair. "They asked questions that were on topic," Pincin said. "They showed a general interest in what our club was doing so I can assume they did that for everyone else."
College Democrats President Noah Black said he was unhappy with the original allocation as well as the length of the process.
"It was a little long, but I understand they had a lot of new clubs," Black said. "I was pretty disappointed when I saw our original budget number come back. But when we were told that we could appeal ... we did that and it turned out pretty positive."
The Council originally allocated $110,000 for the 126 student clubs and organizations recognized this year. The appeals process, which includes individual appellate hearings, allows clubs to ask for additional funds from a pool of $8,000, Wagner said.
"For most clubs, this will be all the money they can have," Wagner said.
Wagner said the appeal process allowed several clubs to take part in the process after having missed out on the preliminary hearings.
"Several of the clubs that appealed hadn't actually sent budgets in the first place," Wagner said. "For some of them, it was just a second chance. There were only a few cases where it was an actual appeal."
Those groups that went through the appeal process were happy with the results.
"Actually, we got more than the budget last year," Pincin said. "We were very pleased with what we got."
Black said he is optimistic about next year, even though his club received less funding than originally requested.
"We requested close to $8,000 ... we got close to $3,000," Black said. "We're really upping our fundraising this year ... this will limit our need for the Student Activity Fee."
Appellate Allocations:
Club - Recieved - Appellate Allocation - Final recieved A-Team - $400 - $100 - $500 Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship - 1,600 - 2,000 - 3,600 College Democrats - 2,200 - 800 - 3,000 College Libertarians - 325 - 200 - 525 Democracy Matters - 150 - 300 - 450 International Development Program Student Association - 200 - 1,300 - 1,500 Latino and American Student Organization - 2,500 - 1,700 - 4,200 MoGIT (Kogod) - / - 1,700 - 1,700 Student Alumni Association - 150 - 400 - 550
