Student Activity Fee Committee granted requested funds from visual arts center and Men Empowerment Network.
By Nicole Bautista
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The Student Activity Fee Committee granted funding to two organizations at the April 6 meeting in the president’s large conference room in Fletcher Administration Center.
The two organizations submitted applications requesting a total of $4,578, but the committee decided to allot $3,571, during this meeting.
The committee is composed of nine members, five students and four faculty members, who review proposals from members of an organization.
The proposal must explain what the requested money would be used for and how it would benefit them and this college.
The Men Empowerment Network requested $3,007 to fund a trip to the 2017 Conference on College Men, June 8–10 at Washington University in St. Louis.
During the conference, scholars and practitioners will come together to address various issues related to men and masculinity in higher education.
The conference takes place every two years, and this year’s conference is geared toward men of color — Latinos and African-Americans, said Geraldo Guerra, academic program coordinator.
“Our male students are lagging behind all the wonderful things females are doing,” Guerra said.
The committee agreed this would be a beneficial conference for those involved; however, there will only be two students attending.
“I mean two students, one adviser, that’s a lot of money when you look at the cost, but at the same time, it’s a really good opportunity for those to go,” said Brian Barwise, American Sign Language instructor.
Several members agreed with Barwise.
“I have no doubt that the two students will be greatly benefitted, but it will still only be just two students,” said Christopher Scoggins, financial services sophomore and student voting member.
The committee discussed this request for several minutes before deciding to grant more time for consideration by voting after the next application to be heard.
When the committee reconvened, a partial award of $2,000 was decided upon.
The visual arts program submitted a request of $1,571 to host a lecture Oct. 19 by artist and former student of this college, Erik Parker.
“I think it is a rare opportunity. Erik Parker is sort of a star in our department and beyond,” visual arts Professor Debra Schafter said as she explained her proposal.
Parker lives in New York City where he has been incredibly busy building an impressive artist resume, Shafter said.
“For our majors, the success story is wonderful, and just as an alumni, he is incredibly impressive,” Schafter said.
Schafter said during a long phone conversation with Parker, he attributed a great part of his mega-career to his time at this college and the instructors he had while here.
“He feels like he really wants to come back to SAC to give back,” Schafter said.
The members of the committee quickly agreed to grant VAC the full award of $1,571.
The committee does not often receive applications regarding alumni or guest speakers, according to Mark Bigelow, interim director of student life, chair of the meeting.
“In large part, especially over the last three years, a large majority of the applications you hear are for student travel,” Bigelow said. “Prior to that, at least when I started, you got applications for a lot of things that were approved, including what would be considered a lecture series.”
This lecture is in the fall, so the funds will be allotted from the 2018 fiscal year budget.
Requests for funding by the Student Activity Fee Committee must be received six weeks before an event and two weeks before a monthly meeting, Bigelow said.
Applications can be found here.
