By The Editors
Student Senate started the semester with about $30,000 in rolling appropriations.
This funding is allotted for student organizations to come and request funds for various events, conferences and competitions.
After three meetings, Student Senate has about $19,000 left for this semester, meaning Student Senate has distributed nearly a third of this semester’s budget in just three weeks.
Students need to be aware of how their leaders are spending their money.
About $5,000 was appropriated on Jan. 29 for three student organizations to attend conferences in other states.
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Each organization asked for $2,000 or more.
Senators amended the bills, but did not remove more than $600-$800 from the requests.
The importance of students attending competitions and conferences is understandable.
Student Senate should carefully consider the benefit to the entire campus community when appropriating money.
The university likely will benefit more from events hosted on campus, that bring other students, perspective students or the general public to OCU, rather than sending a small group of students to an out-of-state conference.
The potential for media coverage and community participation is greater for events hosted on campus.
Bringing guests onto campus is an important part of the university’s role in the Oklahoma City community.
Student Senate needs to be more discerning in its appropriations and to give preference to on-campus events.
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