By Deanna Krokos, For The Miami Student
Associated Student Government (ASG) passed a measure Tuesday to increase funding to Miami Activities and Programming (MAP).
The increase will occur in July, prior to the 2015-16 school year, and will consist of additional funding to MAP between $50,000 and $90,000.
Some Senators expressed concerns about the proposal, due to MAP's past financial trouble, having gone over their $238,000 budget for the 2014 year.
As noted in the presentation, several factors contributed to previous financial issues, including university regulations that required higher expenditures for some of the more popular and costly events, like Welcome Week.
MAP is responsible for many other widely attended student events and activities, like Homecoming and Family Weekend, which MAP representatives said were some of the most costly events of the year.
Two representatives for the organization's finance board, Paige Gillen and Victoria Polisena, presented their funding request to ASG, outlining the essentials of the budget and the ways they plan to utilize these funds.
According to the agenda presented by the MAP representatives, these funds will be used primarily to accommodate new university and student requests.
The proposed budget was set to include two deposits - the initial deposit of $150,000 and a second deposit between $100,000-150,000, which will be determined in July.
"Total funding will remain under $300,000," Posilena said.
In the past, the MAP budget was set around $210,000, but higher expectations from the university led to higher costs for campus events and activities.
"Administrators want things they can't pay for," Gillen said.
After debate, it was the general consensus that the relationship between ASG and MAP, as well as the improved and more itemized "record trail" they have established, is reason to allow this request. Furthermore, it was expressed that the success and high attendance of their most popular events warranted this funding.
"The more involved [students] are, the more money it's going to cost," Senator Sammi Podolyan said. The measure passed unanimously.
Additionally, MAP representatives presented a number of new initiatives and ideas toward which funding will be applied. Past successes were highlighted, such as this November's Fallin' for Goggin carnival and upcoming Spring Fest, promoting student attendance to Miami hockey games.
MAP also requested funds for membership development programs, such as sending Miami representatives to local and national planning conferences for training. MAP would also like to extend these opportunities to non-executive members.
"When we were able to host 10 to 12 schools here at Miami for the conference it was great," Gillen said.