The SGA quelled fears that there would not be an annual Art Attack by providing the necessary funds yesterday for the concert from its own budget.

The Student Government Association voted last night to grant an appeal by Student Entertainment Events for an extra $13,920 in funding for the annual Art Attack concert after the group was given drastically less than it usually receives when the SGA allocated funds earlier this month. The funding will come strictly from SGA finances and not from other student groups as previously suggested.

The entertainment group was among the nearly 132 student groups that suffered cuts in their budgets this fall.

“I respect the SGA and their judgment in allocating the funds,” said Gretchen Dellinger, president of SEE.”Art Attack shall survive.”

This year, the SGA had $61,430 in various reserve funds generally used within the group or for emergency funding to student groups.

Funding for SEE could have been provided either solely through the SGA or through a compromise between the SGA and other student groups on the campus, legislators said. However, strong opposition from student groups helped the SGA decide to fund the appeal themselves.

“There’s so much that the SGA can do that doesn’t rely on money,” SGA Director of Student Groups Derrick Pfeffer said. “But these groups need that money. So we need to realize what the cost is to take this money from these groups.”

Legislator Chris Biggs agreed with Pfeffer, saying the SGA has more than enough funding while other student groups already suffered devastating cuts.

“Who is it better invested with, us or our student groups?” Biggs said. “I think it’s student groups. We’re rich, we have money for a rainy day, but these groups have programs planned out already that we don’t. It’s completely economically and financially feasible.”

Biggs also said while other student groups have programs in place, the SGA merely keeps reserve funding with no plans for it.

“We want to have programming, but I don’t see the SGA doing any really good programs,” Biggs said. “If the SGA had dozens of programs to hold this year, I’d be more fiscally conservative. But we don’t.”

Some legislators said the SGA should solely provide funding for SEE because it is their fundamental responsibility to solve problems experienced by other student groups.

“SEE appealed to the SGA for funding – when other groups appealed to the SGA, we don’t pass that off on other groups,” legislator Suzie Dundas said. “It’s time for the SGA to suck it up and just say, ‘This is what we need to do.’ We can’t use other student groups to cover our tracks.”

Though a majority passed the bill for the SGA to solely provide SEE’s funding, some legislators said this cut will now affect the SGA the same way other student groups might have been affected.

“This isn’t a compromise if it completely raids the SGA’s budget,” legislator Kevin Rodkey said. “Obviously if everyone had all the money in the world, we’d all do these great programs. But now the SGA is taking a very big cut.”

SGA programs such as the First Look Fair, the Readership Program and meet and greet sessions with the Board of Regents could all be affected from this decision, Rodkey said.

SGA Vice President of Financial Affairs Daozhong Jin echoed Rodkey and said while she “fully supports” the SGA’s decision, impacts are inevitable.

“We are going to do our best to move money around,” Jin said. “There will be a definite impact, but my job now is to limit that impact.”

The SGA is holding a finance feedback forum on Monday at 6 p.m. in the Thurgood Marshall Room of Stamp Student Union to gauge reactions from student groups about how funding was distributed.

Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at roxanadbk@gmail.com.