After more than a month of deliberations, the SGA approved more than $1.2 million in funding for student groups, including about $20,000 allocated at last night’s meeting to groups whose members felt shortchanged by the long finance process.

The Student Government Association Finance Committee received funding requests from 241 groups for more than $2.4 million – almost double the available budget.

Fifteen of 60 groups received a total of more than $25,000 in additional money upon appealing to the committee, which could only grant requests for mistakes it made on the initial budgets. In a five-and-a-half hour meeting last night, 12 dissatisfied groups asked for more funds directly from the legislature, which can make exceptions to the finance guidelines and overrule committee decisions.

Student groups were originally denied funding for a variety of reasons. Some asked for money for food – a “low priority” item, according to the finance guidelines – while many others, SGA Vice President of Financial Affairs Jason Hofberg said, didn’t provide enough documentation to show the intended use of the funds.

“I know the finance process is extremely complicated, … but the reason there is documentation is so we know the money is being spent appropriately,” said committee member and Vice President of Financial Affairs-elect Andrew Steinberg in reference to one of the groups.

Before the legislature heard the appeals last night, Hofberg reminded the legislators that, although the body has the power to overrule the committee, the committee’s recommendations shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“In order to have consistency and in order to be fair through all of this, there has to be consistency in these rules,” Hofberg said.

Throughout the meeting, legislators argued that certain groups deserved exceptions to the committee’s rules while members of the committee defended its decisions, saying fairness dictates the rules and that rules are applied consistently across all student groups.

For eight groups – Feminism Without Borders, the Generics singing group, Maryland Public Interest Research Group, the Pride Alliance, Muslim Women of Maryland, Red Terrapins, the Revolutions Dance Ensemble and the Terrapin Anime Society – the legislature voted to make exceptions.

Feminism Without Borders, which is known around the campus as an active opponent of sweatshop labor, was originally denied funding that group members planned to use to bring speakers from Latin American countries to the campus to talk about working conditions.

“The rule is important, but I think this is an extremely rare opportunity,” said Letters and Sciences Legislator Kelley Chubb, who spoke in favor of granting the group its appeal. The legislators ultimately decided, by a one-vote margin, to award the group an additional $1,200.

But for other groups, the legislature was not so lenient and sided with the Finance Committee, denying the four additional funding requests.

Representatives who spoke on behalf of the groups denied funding said they understood the committee’s position and respected the legislature’s decision.

“They’re following the rules that they have … and this is a good thing to do,” said Talvar Tari, the president of one of the groups denied funds. “I was a little disappointed, but their arguments are understandable.”

Avery Joshua, the treasurer for the Black Business Association, which was denied funding for an etiquette dinner, said she understood the difficulty of allocating funds but also said the committee’s guidelines should state what it will refuse to fund more clearly.

The guidelines state that food may be funded when it is “essential to [the] program,” for example, but after attempting to argue her case for the etiquette dinner – for which it was argued food was clearly necessary – Avery said it became apparent the SGA simply wouldn’t fund it.

“It’s just a big waste of time … if they’re not going to fund it in the first place,” Avery said.

Even though the legislature granted a large number of appeals that went against the commitee’s original ruling, Hofberg said he was generally pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

“Our missions are slightly different,” Hofberg said, explaining the differences between the Finance Committee, which is bound by its guidelines, and the legislature, which is tasked with representing the student body.

coxdbk@gmail.com