One of the primary responsibilities of the Marquette Student Government executive vice president is to lead the Student Organization Allocations Committee, the group of senators and vice presidents responsible for distributing student organization funding to campus groups.
The Student Organization Allocations Committee, more commonly referred to as the SOF Committee, is an important topic around MUSG this year. Because all students pay $60 each year in a student activity fee, MUSG is responsible to allocate those funds to student organizations.
This spring, the three EVP candidates are eager to bring their own vision to the SOF process.
Rosie De Luca, a junior in the College of Business Administration, will be running for executive vice president alongside current Programs Vice President Tyler Tucky, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. De Luca holds the unique status of being the only EVP candidate with no previous affiliation to MUSG.
Even though she was never being involved in MUSG or with SOF, De Luca held leadership positions within other organizations, most notably hunger clean-up.
Her lack of direct involvement with SOF, however, does not mean she lacks opinion about how it runs. So far, she thinks the process works — “but only to a certain degree.”
“If you are just satisfied with it floating by (then it works),” De Luca said. “I think that SOF can be a lot better. I think that students as leaders and members of organizations are a little bit frustrated by it a lot of the time, and that’s not the point of SOF and that isn’t the point of student government.”
Natalie Pinkney, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, is the running mate of Legislative Vice President Kyle Whelton, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. Pinkney served as a senator from Cobeen Hall her freshman year. Though she was not directly involved with SOF in her role as senator, she said she did deal with it a bit in her role on the Student Organizations Committee.
“There has been so much frustration from student organizations,” Pinkney said. “It’s time for a new outlook on it. It’s time for a new set of eyes.”
Pinkney said she understands the frustration of the student organizations that are not familiar with the process. She said some of the implied requirements for the SOF application — like requiring groups to know all the details of an event months in advance — can make the application challenging.
Pinkney also stressed an interest in working with all student organizations that applied for funding in the past on the changes that will be made to SOF by the ad hoc review committee.
Marguerite Biagi, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, will be the running mate of this year’s Executive Vice President Zach Bowman, also a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She served as the elections coordinator for MUSG last semester.
Biagi is open about her limited experience with SOF. She was never directly in charge of it for an organization, but has assisted in the application process.
“I believe that the funding should be distributed in full to Marquette student organizations,” Biagi said in an email. “Therefore, it would be my main purpose as chair to ensure that the money that all students pay into (with their student activity fee) is being distributed and utilized to student organizations.”
Biagi also said she wants to increase the consistency regarding SOF decisions. Consistency became an issue this year after the SOF Committee deviated in its reasoning when allocating money to MARDI GRAS.
