AASAC Organizations Dissatisfied with Disbursement of Appropriations

Kierra Leggett | Editor In Chief

Appropriationswere a hot topicat Friday’s General Body AASAC meeting after many AASAC organizations made claims of receiving little money from the initial disbursement of appropriation funds.

Decided on bythe Appropriations Committee, Senate President Pro Tempore Emerson Barker released initial appropriation amounts to student organizations Sep. 16, via email. In his email, Barker reminded student organizations that the Appropriations Committee has “exceedingly limited funding with which to attempt to meet requests.”

However, some AASAC leaders like Ashley Davis President of Women Empowering Society Together questioned why there was such limited funding during the General Body AASAC meeting on Friday. “All of our student fees pay toward appropriations, yet a lot of organizations are being denied. What happens to all that leftover money that my student fees are paying for, that my organization, or other organizations I might benefit from, aren’t getting?” Davis said.

Davis’ group, W.E.S.T was one among many groups blacklisted. Organizations are added to the blacklist, often for not keeping proper records. If blacklisted, organizations are ineligible to receive appropriation funds for a designated period of time.

Jamael Harrison, President of Uninhibited Praise, also a blacklisted group said, “I have a problem with being penalized for the actions of past leaders in my group who may have lost their receipts.”

Those AASAC organizations that were not blacklisted, but denied monies from the initial disbursement of appropriation funds, filed for an appeals interview with the Appropriations Committee.

The common goal for all AASAC leaders however, was to find a long-term solution to the problem of AASAC organizations being potentially being over looked in appropriations and also ways to make sure AASAC organizations remained off the blacklist.

 Kris Rawls, a junior majoring in engineering and the president of the NCSU Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, was one of the first AASAC leaders to offer up a solution. “What are we doing to promote African Americans to apply for these Senate positions?,” asked Rawls. “I see year after year… white students applying saying ‘hey I want to run for this, vote for me!’…what are we doing to encourage black students to run for these same positions so that we’re not discriminated against? Underclassmen may not know, but we [upperclassmen] do know, so we should be telling the people in our organizations to run for Senate…that’s something we can do, so that we can stop having this same issue year after year.”

A recurring problem, in the fall of 2004 AASAC organizations as a whole received $755 from the $40,000 set aside for appropriations. In protest, more than 200 students dressed in all black and accompanied by the N.C. State drumline participated in a sit-in on a Student Senate meeting. Student Senate responded by tapping into appropriation money from the spring semester and providing AASAC organizations with an extra $4000 for the 2004 fall semester.

Though there are currently no plans for another sit-in, AASAC does intend to express its concerns regarding the fairness of appropriation funding disbursement with student government and university officials at today’s President’s Roundtable meeting and also at Chancellor’s Liaison, which is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Once appeal interviews concluded, some AASAC organizations fared better than others in second round apportionments. AASAC will still move forward however, in its efforts to ensure all AASAC organizations receive adequate appropriation funding.

AASAC Organizations 2nd Round Amount Appropriated: 

• African Student Union-$0
• African American Textile Society – $1,200
• Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. – $ 500
• Caribbean Student Association – $ 155
• CHASS-MASS – $260
• Dance Visions*- $0
• Mui Omicron Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.- $75
• Kappa XI Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.- $2,350
• NAACP* – $0
• National Pan-Hellenic Council- $1,000
• SAA-PAMS-$55