In an uncharacteristically brief funding meeting Wednesday, Northwestern’s ASG Senate allocated an additional $100 to Peace Project, the only student group to receive supplementary money.
Though the Student Activities Finance Committee (SAFC) is the principal allocator of ASG funds to student groups, the Senate can either add or cut funds from the SAFC’s initial decisions. This year, ASG Senate had $33,507.04 available in its funding pool to augment SAFC funding.
Originally, the Senate passed legislation to add $300 to SAFC’s original allotment of $400 to Peace Project, to help the group bring more notable speakers to Northwestern like former death row inmate Damien Echols, who spoke Tuesday on campus. However, the Senate later passed an amendment to reduce additional funding to the Peace Project to $100.
Weinberg senior Ian Coley, who proposed this amendment, said that based on the divided vote on the original legislation, it was clear that ASG senators did want to provide additional funding to Peace Project, but perhaps not as much as $300.
Of the 22 groups the SAFC recently considered for funding, Peace Project was the only one to receive additional funding from ASG Senate.
The Senate also passed legislation to revise its code about the ASG Services Committee, which is responsible for working on projects like JobCat, an online job search site that connects Evanston residents with Northwestern students. The code previously indicated that the group must report to the ASG Executive Board before making any decisions, which it had not been doing.