Student organizations are slated to receive nearly $380,000 in initial allocation funds – up $30,000 from last year’s distribution – according to the Student Association’s allocations bill.

The SA Senate will approve the bill Tuesday night during a regular body meeting. In 2008 students voted to increase the student fee, which gives the SA more than $700,000 to distribute this year, including initial allocations and co-sponsorships.

Student organizations can petition for more money at Tuesday’s meeting, but last year few groups that did so were granted additional funding.

Sen. Connor Walsh, U-At Large, chair of the Finance Committee, said he was satisfied with the final bill. The committee will meet again before Tuesday’s meeting to “clean up” some things, but Walsh said he doesn’t expect any major changes.

“The votes have been nearly unanimous throughout this entire process. I am confident that a majority of the Finance Committee supports the bill we submitted to [Executive Vice President] Jason Lifton,” Walsh said.

The College Republicans and the College Democrats – who have already brought major speakers to campus this year – are slated to receive $10,500, an increase of $500 from last year.

The Student Bar Association is slated to receive $64,050 this year if the bill passes – up from $61,500 last year. The Student Bar Association is one of ten “umbrella organizations” that distribute money to related organizations below it.

Student organizations submitted allocations requests in September, when they were asked to project their costs of operation for the school year. This bill includes only those costs, not money for co-sponsorships that the SA might provide later this year.

Organizations were notified of their initial allocation amount last Monday, and given the opportunity to appeal the Finance Committee’s decision.

Of the 231 organizations covered in the bill, Walsh said that six organizations came to appeal on Monday and 18 appealed on Wednesday.

“We were fairly spot-on on our initial assessment of most student orgs,” Walsh said. He added that the vast majority of people who came for a hearing were unfamiliar with the allocations process.

“The conversation we had was more the difference between initial allocations and co-sponsorships,” Walsh said.

Tricia Reville, one of the co-chairs for GW Women in Business, said that her organization appealed the committee’s decision after receiving an allocation of only $150.

“The process itself seems to be fair,” Reville said. “There are so many student orgs and all of us think that ours deserves all the funding we ask for and naturally the SA can’t deliver on that.”

Emily Cahn contributed to this report.

Look up your organization’s funding:
Student Association Initial Allocations Bill, 2009