Controversy over allocations to Jewish group at finance committee meeting

The finance committee of Student Congress split $4,000 among nine student groups in a meeting on Tuesday night.

The question of how much money to allocate to Chabad, an organization for Jewish students, was the most controversial of the meeting. The committee was split evenly on whether to give the group no money or $250.

The group asked for $10,008 for upcoming holidays.

Ben Albert, chairperson of the finance committee, strongly opposed giving the group any money for the reasons they requested.

“I am actually going to object to this. I just think with the large amount of funding that they have already received and the fact that they could have used it (for upcoming events), and especially with the limited amount of funding we have now,” Albert said. “And this is also recurring cost, they asked, I think, for $20,000 in the spring and another 10 from last fall and I think that it is just setting a bad precedent for these massive, massive requests that are reoccurring.”

Katharine Shriver, a member of the finance committee, opposed Albert’s opinion.

“I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel right not giving them any money. I feel like they represent a good amount of students and yeah they made some mistakes...” she said before turning to the Chabad representatives.

“You asked for a lot of money and we aren’t going to give you that much money, but I think you deserve something, and that might be only $250 but I just don’t like saying no.”

The committee finally decided to give $35.82 to Chabad after allocating money to every other group at the meeting.

The executive branch of student government was given the most money at the meeting. They received $2,319.18 to pay for stipends, fees, traveling, lodging and other expenses.

The Undergraduate Art Association was given $300 out of the $400 they requested for restocking art supplies and for an event. And GlobeMed at UNC received $714 to have four members attend a leadership institute in Illinois.

Aidan Hennessy, the newly-elected finance committee vice chairperson, had reservations about how much funding to give the group.

“I have to say overall, I am not totally comfortable with funding something like this because it is, one, out of state and ... My second reason is that you keep coming to us and we want you to become more self-sustaining,” Hennessy said.

The UNC Muslim Students Association received $400 of the $665 they requested to hold an alumni dinner.

The last three groups were given small amounts of the money left over.

Mezcla, a bilingual student magazine, received $150 to pay a deposit on a printer. Student Friends of the Ackland Art Museum was given $54 for a two-day Week of Welcome event at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

Finally, the American Mock World Health Organization was given $27 for travel expenses out of the $1,800 requested.

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