More To Events—The Funding Process At Iona College

Sitting at a round table with executive board members, club presidents host their mandatory meetings where the organizations comes up with their events for the semester. From fundraising for cancer research to hosting a themed dance, each organization begins their funding and planning ideas at the start of each semester in excitement and hope for a memorable event.

At Iona College clubs and organizations are encouraged to host events on campus and spread their creativity and ideas with others. However, while it may seem like a simple task to think of an idea and bring it to life, there are a few steps necessary to doing so.

With over 80 active clubs, groups, and organizations on the college campus there are many student leaders visiting the schools office of student development (OSD) to get their programs accepted and funded. A PowerPoint detailing the funding budget information provided by senior Brianna Alejandro explains that each organization must fill out a funding proposal detailing their upcoming events, funds needed for the events, and other logistical information.

Student executive board members propose their Spring event ideas and submit their funding requests to the funding board in the Fall to prepare with their organization and the work off of the funding they receive.

Assistant vice provost for student development, Elizabeth Oliveri explained that student umbrella groups, such as media groups or club sports apply for an annual budget to certify the operations of their groups such as the yearbook contract, paper printing, and music licensing fees. Other clubs on campus apply for funds through the funding proposal on an event-by-event and need basis.

When emailing 22 club and organization presidents on their thoughts of the funding process only one senior, Kerri Mattei responded by explaining that she wasn’t aware on the process, being that she doesn’t handle the funding packets for her group.

At Iona College only recognized clubs an organizations that are in good standing with the student government association (SGA) are allowed to apply for and are rewarded funding for events. In order to be on good standing the clubs must follow the college policies and procedures based on legal requirements.

When the deadline for funding proposals is up, the college’s funding board begins to go through each proposal and decide based on a rubric which events will receive “x” amount of funding. The funding board is made up of student development assistant directors, the SGA vice president for finance, the assistant vice president for student development, one representative from the Gael Activities Board, and one representative from the Council of Greek Governance.

Each funding proposal is looked through and when decided some clubs may receive the exact amount of funding requested and some may not. SGA Vice President for Finance, Devante Spaulding explains that the reason for the funding board is to make the decisions to be fair to all organizations on campus.

“We never want to say no to students who want to have events.” Spaulding said “that’s why the funding board exists, to make sure the funds are allocated and fair in an reasonable way, some clubs will get more funding than others based off the nature of the event, not based off the club or organization itself.”

While the SGA and OSD find the best option to help fund club events sometimes it may take a little more for students to host the event they want. Alejandro who is also President of sorority Phi Gamma Chi explains that her sorority will typically get the same amount of funding for their annual events based off of previous years funding requests.

“We usually get the same amount of funding for our annual events that we normally have set up from previous semesters.”

However, if the organization feels they will need more funding than rewarded, they can apply for rolling funding that will help them request the additional funds they believe they need for their event.

Although the funding board does their best to grant each program with enough funds for students to host their events, Alejandro feels there should also be more detailing as to why the events that weren’t chosen were denied.

“They could be better with letting us know why events were denied, when we receive our funding approvals and denials, they never state why an event has been denied of funding, I feel like that could be helpful for students in the future for planning other events.”

SGA and OSD have additional opportunities for funding that are encouraged that include co-sponsorship, rolling funding, major campus events budget and donations.

Another form of the funding process is supplemental funding where a club or organization asks for additional funding, after the event has already been approved by the prior semester’s funding board and has been allocated funding.

Although the funding board provides as much help to each club as they can, some students feel there is favoritism when dividing the funds. Junior, Jillian Venditti shares that the smaller clubs tend to receive less funding than an organization with a bigger following.

“If there’s a bigger, more known club they’re going to get more money as oppose to the little guys who barely get any funding.” Venditti said “just because we don’t have 100 or so members we don’t get certain things that other clubs do, it’s a little bit of favoritism, and that’s not fair.”

The budget for each funding board is broken down into four categories, co-curricular, entertainment, diversity, and miscellaneous. When an event is accepted for funding all purchases must be approved by the office of student development beforehand, otherwise the students may not be reimbursed for the amount spent.

Even after meetings discussing the funding board there are still some pieces that can seem unclear, Oliveri explained in an email that when breaking down the funds between 80 plus organizations it can seem confusing to many people.

“It is a very complex topic and students (and staff) who have worked with it for many hours and years can find it difficult to explain to others”