At this semester's first full Congress meeting Tuesday evening, Speaker Mark Townsend announced that Congress has about $11,500 to distribute to student groups this semester -- about half the amount of last semester and about a quarter of the usual amount.
"We are in a serious financial crunch," Townsend said. "We had $22,000 last year, and we thought that was bad."
Congress entered last year's session with a $5,100 debt because of overspending in previous sessions and because of a small amount of reversions -- unused money student groups must return to Congress at the year's end.
Townsend said last year's Congress absorbed that debt by being frugal with appropriations and that he expected Congress would have about $40,000 to distribute this semester. But when Student Body Treasurer Kativa Parker went to the Student Activity Fund Office to check Congress' balance Tuesday, she was told that Congress never paid $40,000 in operating costs to SAFO last year.
"I'm not sure how communication happened or didn't happen," Parker said.
Townsend recommended that Congress dole out money on a first-come, first-serve basis, and members tried to follow that plan Tuesday. They unanimously passed three bills that appropriated $2,692.86 to the National Lawyer's Guild, the singing group Vision and the National Society of Black Engineers.
Congress also elected junior Matt O'Brien as speaker pro tem, a position that was vacated by Sarah Marks after she graduated in May.
The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.
