A 5-4 vote by student government leaders Wednesday leaves the Residence Hall Association $2,000 in the hole for a conference it hosted in February.
The regional business conference — known as No Frills — for the Intermountain Association of College and University Residence Halls was funded by several sponsors, including RHA, the Dean of Students Office, the UofA Bookstore and the Associated Students for the University of Arizona. The event went over budget by $2,784.18, according to Sen. Alex Chang, who asked the ASUA Senate to cover the extra costs.
Chang served as housing chair for the No Frills conference.
“Should you choose to fund the full amount or should you reduce it, I encourage you not to vote no on it in its entirety, because they really do need the support,” Chang said.
Providing funding would help build the relationship between the student government and RHA, he added.
However, senators hesitated to fund the full $2,784.18.
“This is essentially a subsidy for every single student that attended this,” said Sen. Morgan
Abraham. “In theory what happened is you didn’t charge these students the correct price, and now we’re asking for a subsidy to subsidize that cost.”
IACURH, a regional association, is part of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. In order to host No Frills for IACURH, RHA had to bid against other schools.
“Then you must absorb the responsibilities by winning … just in the same way that a city that bids
for the Olympics would have to,” said Anthony Salas, vice president for public relations for RHA.
Although the cost of each attending delegate was budgeted for before the conference, unexpected costs came up for transportation, housing and dining, Chang said.
Failing to pay for all of the conference’s expenditures “in a way reflects that we’re not paying membership dues,” Salas said.
If funding for the extra costs is not provided by Sunday, RHA could lose its affiliation with IACURH, Chang said.
Senators debated the consequences of providing more funding, saying that doing so would be paying for a mistake made by another organization.
“This is putting the weight on our shoulders, to try to kind of get yourselves [RHA] out of the hole that you guys dig yourselves in,” Sen. Joel Torres said.
The request was then amended to provide funding only for transportation, not housing and dining
costs. The ASUA Senate’s 5-4 vote will provide RHA with $892.56.
Chang thanked the senate for allocating part of the request.
“Any little bit helps … Of course there are concerns that there were issues with how it was presented,” Sen. Chang said. “But I still do appreciate it.”
