The SGA voted against campus radio station WMUC’s appeal to a financial committee’s rejection of the station’s application for fiscal year funding last night.

Legislators voted down the bill, 6-14-1, on the grounds that WMUC’s application was filed incorrectly. WMUC discovered the application was rejected mid-last week because the station asked for the funding before the end of a 60-day mandatory waiting period — an error WMUC members said was an honest mistake. 

By the rules, according to Student Government Association President Patrick Ronk, any requests for funding of more than $1,500 must be asked for 60 days in advance. This is to ensure the funds are properly allocated and the event is well planned, Ronk said.

The financial committee is required to follow these guidelines, he added, but the appeals process is made exactly for situations such as WMUC’s, when there are extenuating circumstances.

“It’s a general operation, it’s not really an event,” Ronk said. “We shouldn’t really have the 60-day rule apply for them.”

WMUC will not be able to apply for funds again until the next deadline, Oct. 20, and will not receive anything until at least 30 days after, in mid-November.

Bret Caples, WMUC’s business manager, said the clerical error stemmed from a mistake he made in the date on the Sept. 22 application.

Caples said the application appeared to ask for $11,000 by Nov. 10, though the station was not able to ask for the funds before Nov. 21, said Brian Nowak, SGA financial affairs vice president.

“It was an error on my part. If I had just paid attention, it wouldn’t have happened,” Caples said. “I’m not mad at SGA, they just did their jobs.” 

More than 15 students representing WMUC attended last night’s SGA meeting, during which Caples and the station’s general manager Kevin Delmolino asked the student governing body to allot about $6,300 in spot funding, an amendment to the funding bill initially accepted by the SGA. But that final bill, including the amendment, was ultimately denied.

“We’re not worried,” Delmolino said. “We will get through this. Day-to-day operations will continue as they are today.” 

Taylor Cairns, WMUC news director, said news and sports are the hardest hit by the lack of funding. The news section already operates on a tight budget for students interested in gaining career experience for broadcast news reporting, he said, and the section will meet today to regroup.

“We don’t request too many things for budget purposes, when we do it’s only because it’s necessary,” said Cairns, who was not able to attend the meeting Wednesday. “[For us,] it’s not a hobby. We do this for our careers.”

Cairns said he is confident WMUC news will survive the temporary lapse in funding, but said the experience points to internal inefficiencies the station as a whole needs to address.

Dennis Ting, WMUC sports director, said sports lost some of their equipment last year, and the section was relying on this funding to get the bulk of it back. Delmolino said the station needed the funds for failing and lost equipment, specifically to fund telephone lines so they can continue to broadcast effectively. 

“We were really looking to upgrade, and it’s really unfortunate that we can’t,” he said.“I can’t provide for these people.”

But the station does have an alumni fund for emergencies, Delmolino said, which has enough money to help the station get through to the next cycle.

“That money was for emergencies when this kind of stuff happens,” Delmolino said. 

Caples said he takes full responsibility for the error, a first in his experience crafting budgets for WMUC.

“Hopefully we can have this never happen again,” Ting said.