By Aleksandra Sidorova
The Student Association Senate approved the club African Unity’s event funding request at its meeting April 9. The amount is the least the club has requested from the SA this semester as clubs turn to alternative means of funding events.
African Unity requested $892 for its 11th annual King & Queen of Africa pageant — the least it has requested this semester, Senator Naomi Adebayo said.
In addition to SA additional allocations, African Unity received funding from College Auxiliary Services and the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
As a member of the Finance Board, Senator Arshita Pandey encouraged senators to approve the request in order to use up the remaining funds for the semester. At the start of the meeting, the SA had $5,461 left in additional allocations for the semester.
“We have a good amount of additional allocations, and I don’t think we will have a lot of requests from here on, so why not just go ahead with this?” Pandey said.
The request was unanimously approved. Adebayo abstained from voting because she is a member of African Unity.
In previous meetings, Adebayo noted that several prominent clubs’ use of alternative funding sources may mean less club support for the SA.
The SA’s current primary focus is campaigning for the SA fee to pass in the upcoming referendum April 25, Executive Council and Board of Election members have said at meetings.
The SA fee referendum is a vote that happens every two years, in which students decide whether to keep the SA fee mandatory. The fee supports clubs, the shuttle, on-campus events, trips, peer tutoring services and extended library hours.
