The Persian Student Association requested more than $8,000 in funding from the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Registered Student Organization Funding Board. The money would fund its Persian New Year event, No Rules, to be held on March 25.
The group explained the plans for the event, which would include traditional music performances, food, culture lectures and possibly Persian dances. The board unanimously approved $7,300 for the event, cutting money out of the copy, miscellaneous and service contract budgets.
The funding board was slated to hear from the College Republicans of the University of Wyoming, but was stood up. The board continued with scheduled requests from other groups and voted 5-1 to allocate no money to the college Republicans. ASUW Sen. Noah Hull said the funding board was not out of line in giving the group no money.
“After all, if you don’t show up for a job interview, you don’t get the job,” Hull said.
The board approved requests from other organizations.
One organization, the International Studies Student Club (ISSC), requested $599.80 from the funding board for materials to make fake bones for the Wyoming portion of a national event, “Road to Washington” campaign, the next step in the “One Million Bones” journey. The nationwide event will be held on April 28 to show the vast amount of people killed by genocide every year. The event consists of artificial bones laid out on the streets of the capitol of each state and the University of Wyoming and the ISSC will coordinate the event for Wyoming.
The ISSC explained the requested money will go toward an ad in the Casper Star tribune for bone-making workshops at UW and tape for the bones. The ISSC told the funding board the university would be nationally recognized as a coordinator of the Wyoming event.
The funding board approved the request from the ISSC. Sen. Joel Defebaugh said, “Whatever is good for the university is good for the students.”
How many times does it need to be said, if a request is over $1000, the Funding Board can only suggest an amount to the full senate, not allocate any money. To say that on Monday $7300 was given to PSA is misleading. Its possible that that amount, more or less could be allocated tonight, but it has not been allocated yet.