SBU political club’s logos
Photo Courtesy, sbu.republicans and sbu_collegedems on Instagram
BY GENEVIEVE BLUMBERG, STAFF WRITER
Despite receiving the same amount of money from the Student Government Association, members of campus political clubs said they disagree with outside funding regulations.
Natalie Merrill, the former president of the College Democrats and graduate student, discussed her understanding of the regulations regarding political club funding.
“Both clubs are supposed to only receive funding from the SGA, we are not allowed to receive any outside funding,” said Merrill. “For college democrats, all of our money came from SGA.”
Chloe Wilson, the college democrats president planned events according to the club’s available budget.
“We’re planning on doing an election night [event] with College Republicans,” said Wilson, a junior public health major. “Especially for this semester, that’s where a lot of our money is going — it’s in the Rathskeller, we have to get food through Aramark, we do raffle prizes. That’s a big part of the budget.”
Wilson said she understands that the College Republicans have more money than the College Democrats.
“It’s hard to equal our weight when we do collaborating events just because [College Republicans] have so much more money than we do, so they can put more money where we can’t,” said Wilson.
Sabion Taylor, senior philosophy major and vice president of the College Republicans said that the funding both clubs receive is equitable to his knowledge.
“All of our funding comes from SGA through grants and whatever the student government thinks is appropriate to delegate to our club,” said Taylor. “In all the years I’ve been here we haven’t gotten any funding from an outside source.”
Kurt Stitzel, the College Republicans club advisor shared his knowledge on outside club funding.
“In the past, the club received some outside donations from alumni,” wrote Stitzel. “I am unaware of any donations over the last two years, that being said, this is not something I monitor as the advisor, and I play no role in obtaining any outside funding.”
Taylor also shared the process by which both clubs could receive additional funding, for an event such as Rock The Vote, on top of the requirements for initial funding.
“If we want any specific funding we have to write a grant letter and ask for it directly,” said Taylor. “We have to meet the other requirements that other clubs do as well, like we have to have a certain amount of volunteer hours, and events on and off campus.”
Jenna Keppel, the assistant director for Student Activities Programming and Engagement, said that there are no restrictions on donations from outside sources.
“All of our clubs and organizations are able to receive donations from outside organizations,” said Keppel. “They would just have to let us know that that’s happening.”
Keppel said that anyone is able to submit donations on the school website.
“On the top of the website, there is a button where anyone can donate to the school or clubs,” wrote Keppel.
With the presidential election coming up, both the Bonaventure democratic and republican boards said they are working toward expanding voter registration and furthering their influence.
“We put together Rock The Vote, which is a big event that we did in the spring with the republicans. We were able to get over 100 people to attend in the Rathskeller,” said Natalie Merrill, first-year graduate student. “We were working together towards a common goal of educating people.”
blumbegc24@bonaventure.edu
