At their weekly meeting on Thursday the Union Program Council nearly wiped-out their remaining funds on Matafest. The UPC allocated $9,496 from their spontaneous funds account to Matafest. As of the prior meeting that account had $12,150. In addition to the funds allocated by the UPC, the Matafest event also received $6,000 from the films committee.

This year’s budget allocates $467,707 to CSUN clubs and organizations, in spite of calls for reform in last semester’s Senate open forum. The recommendations for next year’s annual budget are underway as the A.S. finance committee now turns over the budget to the discerning eyes of the A.

At Monday’s Associated Students finance committee meeting, members recommended allocations for the Senate to deliberate on at their next meeting on March 27. The committee recommended $901 to Alejandro Salinas-Albrednt for his student film project. The $901 recommendation came after much deliberation about staying consistent among similar types of requests.

There is a big misconception about genetic counselors. “People think we tell patients to abort their babies, which is not true. Our job is to tell them the facts and give them options, to help them come up with what works best for them,” said Claudia Hernandez, a second year graduate student in the genetic counseling masters program at CSUN.

The Associated Students Finance Committee appropriated $1.47 million to CSUN athletics department after much debate at their weekly Monday meeting. For the 2005-06 school year, the finance committee had recommended $2.1 million, which dropped to $1.47 million this year.

The Associated Students Finance Committee members are concerned with the quickly disappearing unallocated funds. With only the first four weeks of school behind them, they find that $34,970 remains in their budget, with more to be spent next week, depending on Senate decisions.

Finding Bigfoot,” a film about one man’s struggle with the question of whether to live a routine life or to follow his own ambitions, is one of the 10 senior film projects selected this year by CSUN’s Department of Cinema and Television Arts. The student films range from 10 to 15 minutes but even short student films like these can run up to $40,000, according to Professor Nate Thomas, head of the film production option in the cinema and television arts department.

Dr. James David Ballard delivered a special presentation at the Associated Students Senate meeting at the University Student Union’s Grand Salon on Tuesday asking for the students’ support in the faculty’s fight for fair wages. Ballard, a sociology professor at CSUN, is head of the university’s chapter of the California Faculty Association.

Black Entertainment Television, Black AIDS Institute and Kaiser Family Foundation have come together for the third consecutive year to raise awareness among the American population about HIV/AIDS. They sponsor a contest called Rap-It-Up/Black AIDS Short Subject Film Competition, which awards people who are able to create a short screenplay that discusses the unspoken reality of HIV/AIDS in the most effective and innovative manner.