You’ve spent weeks planning your student group’s latest program, agonizing over every last detail — the content, the marketing plan, the location — excitement building as your idea begins to materialize into reality. Yet, one crucial last piece remains. How will you receive the funds you need to succeed? With lofty aspirations for the year, Student Union’s annual flat funding can only carry you so far. You opt to follow SU’s small appeals process to get the supplemental programming you need. With only one week to go before your program’s date, there is an unexpected twist: A brief email informing you that your appeal for funds has been denied. You struggle to find funding elsewhere, hoping this one decision doesn’t prove to be a fatal blow for your highly anticipated program. Worst of all, there feels like there’s nowhere to turn — minimal room for clarification on either party’s behalf and no potential for reconsideration of the funding decision. Though you were able to find an internal solution this time, the experience leaves you disheartened and discouraged from engaging in this process again.

We, the student groups signed on to this statement, have seen, experienced and/or recognized the consequences of significant flaws in the financial structure of Student Union, particularly in how it allocates funding to student groups. As SU exists today, one person (the Vice President of Finance) is able to review all student group appeals under $1,000 without oversight, opening the door for personal bias and discriminatory practices to influence who receives funding, how much and when. We firmly believe that one individual should not have sole authority to approve or deny funding, and that the current structure creates opportunities for biases to be acted upon. At present, there is no sufficient mechanism to contest such decisions nor are there alternate means to attain funding should an appeal be unilaterally denied. Therefore, we call on SU to immediately reform the funding process, allowing for checks and balances in the financial branch, helping to ensure equitable distribution of resources across all current and future SU recognized student groups to benefit the entire student body.  

Signed,

Briana Garil, President of Hillel Leadership Council

Heather Grossman and Amy Lewandowski, Co-Presidents of First Year Students of Hillel (FYSH)

Jocelyn Epstein, Treasurer of oSTEM@WashU

Evan Zhou, General Body Member Chair of Chinese Students Association

Jacob Leon, President of The Alexander Hamilton Society

Cam Lind, General Manager of KWUR 90.3 FM

Jessica Huang and Ally Sun, Co-Executive Directors of Lunar New Year Festival

Emily Angstreich and Lily Swenson, Co-Directors of Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center

Lily Cohen, Executive Director of WashU Dance Marathon

Eli Nirenberg, President of WU Israel Public Affairs Committee (WIPAC)

Michelle Perez, President of Alpha Psi Lambda

Daphne Liu, President of Phi Gamma Nu (PGN)

Carlos Cepeda and Bryanna Mendez, Co-Directors of Latinxpresión Magazine

Sabrina Lozada, Co-Director of Carnaval

Christian Monzon, President of Association of Latin American Students (ALAS)

Herman Gonzalez, Vice President of Association of Latin American Students (ALAS)

Noah Kaplan, Treasurer of WashU Students for Israel (WSI)

Christine Nguyen, President of Catholic Student Union 

Nayana Vuppala, Co-Captain of WU Garba

Inara Khan, President of Olin Business Council

Alice Na, Co-President of PL4Y

Onyi Onyeador, President of Teaching Racial Understanding Through Honesty

Arielle Smith, Western President of Washington University Equestrian Team