TO THE EDITOR:
The College Republicans are right in pointing to the influence of politics in the discussions surrounding their funding, but I would argue they are pointing to the wrong people.
The DTH correctly reported that the College Republicans submitted a fall budget request for $8,180 last week to bring two speakers to campus, and both the finance committee and full Congress agreed to cut that request to $3,090 to bring one of those speakers to campus.
Firstly, the cuts the College Republicans are facing as a student organization are not unprecedented by any organization on any side of the political spectrum. Last year, the Feminists Students United faced a cut of about $30,000.
If you divide Student Congress’ total available funds for fall 2013, $134,000, by the number of student groups, you can see that there is less than $1,000 available per group.
The College Republicans actually received roughly 310 percent of what every student organization would receive if Student Congress divided up its budget evenly.
As the president of the College Republicans is invited to speak on Fox News and outside administrators consider involvement in the issue, it is clear that politics has ultimately played a role in our discussions.
However, it has not been through Student Congress’ discrimination against a particular group, but through willful ignorance of facts and sensationalization of a decision that did not favor a conservative group enough.
John Guzek ’14
Speaker Pro Tempore
Student Congress
