The discussion held at the Associated Students meeting Tuesday was whether A.S. is promoting clubs and organizations on campus to use resources on campus, such as professors as public speakers instead of brining in outside speakers.
‘A.S. is spending all their money on outside resources when they could be reinvesting in the CSUN community,’ said Alvin Henry, a senior music industry major who spoke during the A.S. open forum portion of the meeting.
Also on Tuesday, $5,700 was allocated for clubs and organizations and only a week ago A.S. granted $12,800 to other clubs leaving about $73,300 for the rest of the semester.
‘There is a lot of discussion being held about being fiscally responsible. But nothing is being done. I don’t see a connection with the faculty; there is huge talent here on campus that we have not tapped into,’ said Henry.
Tom Piernick, University Advisor to A.S., wanted to continue the discussion that was also brought up in a previous meeting, ‘We have the resources on campus but we also want bring people from outside who have different talents than those on campus.’
The debate came about when senators were discussing how much money should be awarded to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for their spending on outside entertainers.
Samantha Walls president of the NAACP also attended open forum to ask senators to allocate $2700 to Apollo Night, a fundraising event that has been held for five years that is open to all CSUN students; this year also happens to be the 100 year anniversary of the NAACP.
‘Apollo Night’ brings in nearly 400 students. The money we make will be used to pay for our members to attend the state and national conference,’ said Walls.’
‘As of now there is no specific stipulation on what these organizations can use this money for,’ said Andrew Collard. Organizations look to A.S. to provide supplemental funding for the events that they are hosting on campus.
‘The senate needs to be consistent. If we are not going to fund entertainment you shouldn’t be picking certain groups to apply that regulation for. You should be consistent with all groups,’ said Andrew Collard of the finance committee.
‘Some of the senators are new and they don’t have as much experience. They have to know what is a valuable investment and not be fearful of the amount that the clubs are asking for,’ said Piernick.
Piernick also believes that bringing outside speakers and entertainers is a good thing if those clubs and organizations are reaching out to all CSUN students and the number of students who attend those events are equivalent with the number of dollars granted from A.S. towards that event.
‘What the senate needs to do is provide workshops to the clubs and organizations to teach them how to put on a program. They need to reinforce that in their budget,’ said Piernick.
‘The senate is not looking at the beneficial entities that we have on campus,’ said Henry who thinks money can be saved and a reputation can be built on campus if the senate tried to incorporate the talent found on campus for events.
What Piernick recommends is that clubs need to plan ahead of time and ask for money now that there is enough. ‘If they wait till the end we may not be able to allocate for them the full amount they ask for,’ said Piernick.
