Delta Lambda Phi is one of the many organizations that is being affected by the problem with USG appropriations this semester. The organization usually uses the funding to help pay for their retreat in November and for recruitment expenses. (photo by Hector Salas Almeida)After a discrepancy on the due date for fall appropriations, many clubs on campus were left without funding for the fall semester.
Each club receives about $500 a semester, which covers costs for food for events and meetings, T-shirts, a banner and other items. The lack has left several clubs scrambling to find alternative sources of money.
Justice studies senior Lauren Sandground, president of Woman as Hero, a social outreach club dedicated to educating ASU students about women's issues and volunteering throughout the valley, said she was unsure of the date the appropriations paperwork was due after checking the USG Senate appropriations website several times over summer.
She said she only realized she had missed the deadline when she had heard it had passed from other people in on campus organizations.
"There was a lack of information on their website," she said.
Sandground said she did not receive any emails about the deadline between the time she registered her club and the time appropriation paperwork was due.
A club must re-register every year, so Sandground registered her club before Sept. 1. She said appropriations were due Sept. 3, but she did not receive any communication about it between the time she registered and the time they were due.
Once she realized the due date had passed, Sandground wrote an email to the USG Appropriations Committee and received a response from the committee's chairman Nathan Duell.
"Thank you for your feedback, and we are going to do everything we can to improve this process," Duell said in the email. "I understand your frustration along with many others, so we are going to do our best to communicate better during the spring cycle." Duell did not respond to a request for an interview.
The day after Sandgroud sent the email, she said the correct due dates were posted on the website for both summer and fall semesters.
"They had changed the due dates for summer appropriations because those were also off by a few weeks," she said. "And then they had the four exact dates for fall listed on there."
Sandground is not the only club president left without funding this semester. Interdisciplinary studies senior Alexander Mach, the president of Delta Lambda Phi and the standing president of the Multicultural Greek Council, said his organization and half of the organizations in the council did not receive any appropriations money this semester because of the confusion.
"Only half of the organizations I oversee ended up making the deadline, because they didn't know what was going on," he said.
He said he also sent an email to the general appropriations email but has not received a clear-cut response.
"I think this semester was really poorly handled, and I'm a little irked with the responses I've gotten," he said.
Mathematics senior Quentin Gunn, vice president of finance for Delta Lambda Phi, said the USG website was not working before the appropriations were due confusing him as to when he needed to submit paperwork.
This means his organization missed out on at least $500.
"It will hamper our ability to host different events," he said.
Sandground said her club will also have trouble with events this semester. Woman as Hero uses free T-shirts, food and other branded items to attract people to their meetings and events and pays for all of those with money from appropriations.
She said she will now be looking for other ways to raise the money, through raising funds and asking local restaurants to donate food for events.
"We won't have funding for the fall semester, which is kind of devastating, because we are a small club," she said. "It's difficult to get people to come to our events in the first place."
The USG Senate President failed to respond to emails and phone calls after agreeing to an interview. Several members of the USG Senate did not respond to emails requesting interviews.
Reach the reporter at kloschia@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @karenlosch
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