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Academic travel funding sees debate, disbursement
By Allison Bailey
abaile19@mscd.edu

Photo by Cora Kemp • ckemp4@mscd.edu The SGA discusses funding for the Student Travel Program on Feb. 7 in the Tivoli.

Proposed changes in the funding of Metro’s Student Travel Program could have students jumping more bureaucratic hurdles to get funding for educational trips.

The director of the Student Travel Program, Arliss Webster, came before the SGA on Feb. 7 to request the additional funding she said the program needed to fund students’ trips for the rest of the semester.

The senate voted on whether to require student groups requesting funds from the program to come before the SGA as well as student travel. The motion died in a 2-4 vote. A motion to rewrite the proposal and discuss the issue further at the Feb. 14 meeting passed unanimously.

“We need to have a more clearly defined policy and criteria on how and who we fund,” said Jack Wylie, SGA president.

The SGA was sensitive to the plight of the program, but there was some disagreement on how best to administer the funds.

Some SGA members proposed that groups seeking funding for their trips make a preliminary request from the Student Travel Program, then go before the SGA for the final decision.

Senators who opposed the motion said the SGA should give the Student Travel Program the lump sum of money and allow the program to make decisions about how it is distributed. The senators pointed out that the Student Travel Program has the necessary knowledge and experience to do this, and the SGA does not.

Proponents of the idea said the SGA should be careful how the money is spent and do what it can to ensure the money goes to worthy causes. This would also give student organizations a chance to become familiar with the SGA and vice versa.

“I understand why they would like to see the students face to face,” Webster said. “But I think it’s logistically a little difficult to do it that way.”

Student travel requests could take up the entire agenda of the SGA, preventing them from getting much else done, she said.

Students already put a lot of work into their funding requests, often taking time off of work to attend the meetings, she said, following with a suggestion that an SGA member sit on the student travel board instead.

“But I’ll do whatever it takes to get these students funding for the rest of the fiscal year,” she said.
The SGA approved several requests for other funding at the Feb. 7 meeting, including $5,381 to send students to a model United Nations meeting in San Francisco, and $1,280 to send the Political Science Association to a model Arab League meeting in Utah.

Brand Spankin New, a student business operated by marketing and design majors, saw its request for money to go to a conference in China approved, but not for the full $11,000 it requested. Instead, the SGA approved $5,590, which is the cost to send the two students involved, but not the faculty. The group will seek the rest of the funding elsewhere.

The SGA is down two senators at the moment, following the official resignations of Danielle Kelly and Tia Klug-Wessell. Both senators resigned because of time constraints, Wylie said.

The decision to hold a special election to replace the two senators is up to the election commission. According to Wylie, the commission may decide not to replace Kelly and Klug-Wessell until the general election that is planned for April.