Ball State University campus organizations seeking university financial support may have to wait until next school year after recent requests swamped the Campus Activities Fund Board.
Student Government Association organizational caucus chair Marco Pretell-Vazquez said Wednesday that his committee would review why organizations have recently been turned down for funding because many depend on it.
He speculated the board's funds are gone, but SGA adviser Lynda Wiley clarified the matter.
"It's not that [the board] ran out of money," she said. "It's just we had more students that have wanted the board to review their applications than what we had slots for."
The fund board is assigned to approve submitted requests by organizations seeking funds. These groups often look for support to sponsor programs, projects or other activities furthering their organization's cause.
Wiley said the board's budget still has $48,876, but too many organizations attempted to come forward at the group's final session this academic school year. The meeting, scheduled for Friday, is the final of four meetings to address application submissions.
Had students taken advantage of the previous meetings this year, Wiley said the organizations could have avoided such congestion. Instead, the board was forced to accept applications on a first-come basis.
Freshman on-campus senator Sara Manwaring asked Wiley what efforts had been made to make organizations more aware of the prior meetings. She said it was likely students did not know about the meetings until it was too late.
"I think there needs to be more publicity letting these groups know about the funds," Manwaring said.
Wiley said this has never been a problem. She said it was likely students did know about these funds, but chose to wait until the final meeting to submit a request.
"While it may seem unfair," Wiley said, "unfortunately there's been groups that have had all year that waited until now to act. The process wasn't flawed ... I feel pretty good that our publicity is out there."
In an attempt to address all organization requests, Wiley said she directed groups to SGA's co-sponsorship board. That board's chair, SGA treasurer Moses Jones, said the group saw its budget boosted to $15,000 this year, a $3,000 increase from years' past.
Jones said the increase allotment has been utilized more than ever, with twice as many inquiries than last year. He said promotion for these funds is done mostly in-house because many on-campus organizations are represented weekly at SGA.
"We try and tell each organization through our meetings - this is a group of organizations," Jones said. "I think people get confused thinking they can't apply for anything more than $500."
Jones said organizations may receive more substantial funds in increments rather than full payments. For example, Jones said the Greek Week steering committee recently was approved for $1,800.
As of Wednesday, Jones said $10,800 of the co-sponsorship funds has been claimed, and the group hopes to reach at least $12,000 by the end of the year.
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