By Farris Willingham, Senior Staff Writer
A reduced budget crippled law students’ ability to operate their organizations this year.
Student Bar Association, the governing body for law students, received about $20,000 less than last year from Student Government Association, said Zeb Judd, third-year law and SBA president.
The group’s budget from SGA, which would have increased this year, was about $12,400.
The cut stems from issues with wording in SGA’s bylaws, which read that SBA would receive 90 percent of its contribution to Student Senate, not SGA.
SBA members make their budgetary decisions before each academic year, said Allison Lyons, second-year law and SBA treasurer.
Law students heard their budget would be cut, but didn’t know the extent until returning to school in Fall 2012, she said.
Lyons said SBA members accounted for a small decrease in their budget and sent their proposal to the Board of Governors, the law school’s student legislative body. It was approved.
“Then we found out that the funds we’re actually receiving were cut in half from the year before,” she said. “We had to completely negate what we already voted on.”
As a result, SBA had to cut funding for conferences, competitions and community events, Lyons said.
The conferences are a great networking tool for students because the events are geared toward one area of law, like energy or sports, Lyons said.
“When these are more focused on a specific interest, they are networking with people that can get them jobs,” she said. “They are learning more about the field that they want to practice in.”
Women’s Law Association was unable to host their annual prom dress drive where members offer outfits to teens from surrounding public high schools, Lyons said.
“What happened is that they have a U-Haul storage unit to contain the dresses, but it couldn’t be funded,” she said. “They decided that they couldn’t do it anymore, so they donated all of their dresses.
“That was something where law students got to reach out to the community.”
Cameron Feil and Jarin Giesler, third-year law, are executive members of the Sports, Property and Entertainment Law Association.
They requested $4,000 to attend a competition in San Diego, Calif., where about 20 schools nationwide, including Harvard University, participated, Giesler said.
“We were assured that we would get it because the law school has always had funding,” he said.
Feil and Giesler sought external support when the group received no funding from SBA after budget cuts.
“It’s sad that we had to go outside the school for our resources,” Giesler said. “It’s not that we’re mad at the school.
“It’s too bad for everyone that more couldn’t happen.”
The duo won the competition and received a trophy, even with the limited funds, he said.
They also were the only team without a hired coach.
Following the group’s victory, participants in the conference knew who OCU was, Feil said.
“It was a really proud moment for me to be able to say I represented Oklahoma City University,” he said.
Law school is a time-intensive endeavor, which creates difficulties when students try to operate organizations, Lyons said.
“The shift in focus has been from making sure that they do everything they need to do for their academics to trying to keep their organizations afloat,” she said.
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