UPDATE: MOMENT OF TRUTH

They left the meeting thinking it had all been resolved. Little did they know the SGA had dug itself into a $20,000 hole.

Several hours after Student Government Association legislators, who had about $50,000 to dole out in student group appeals, voted to award money to 13 out of the 15 student organizations that appealed their budgets last night, student officials realized they had over-budgeted by more than $20,000.

And so, student group leaders trekked back to the meeting after 2 a.m. today to watch as legislators and Finance Committee members scrambled to determine how they could divvy up the money among the organizations they had determined needed help.

The 10-hour meeting, which was moved from Stamp Student Union to the basement of Anne Arundel Hall after midnight, ended in a narrow vote that funded five of the 13 groups originally told they would receive further funding. The groups the body ultimately voted to grant appeals to were those whose primary allocations resulted from mistakes made by the Finance Committee, SGA officials said.

The University Help Center, which functions as a crisis hotline for students and was in danger of not being able to pay for its telephone lines after the primary allocation it received from the SGA, was allotted an additional $930 from the organization last night.

The SGA also funneled money to the Agape Christian Fellowship ($1,364), Rooftop Community Garden ($1,143), Terrapin Bhangra ($2,000), Engineers Without Borders ($1,000), the Weekday Players ($7,763) and MaryPIRG, which ultimately received $42,793 in additional funding from the organization to put toward the salaries of two non-student employees who work for the lobbying group.

The Bangladeshi Student Association, Black Honors Caucus, Iranian Students Foundation, Satanic Mechanic Theater Co. and WMUC Radio were denied any additional funds after they had been told earlier in the meeting they would be receiving more money. The student-run WMUC Radio received an outpouring of support throughout the day yesterday on Twitter and through media reports around the Washington area as alumni and students propagated "Save WMUC" messages that in the end, it seemed, were all in vain. 

WMUC initially received an extra $6,000 in appeals, bringing their total funding to $12,000 — about half of what group leaders said they need to cover basic operational costs, such as their Federal Communications Commission license and Internet and phone bills. But after the SGA's final vote at about 4:30 this morning, the group left with no more than they had entered the meeting with — a sum that WMUC officials said may cause the station to shut down if revenue cannot be generated in other ways.

Funding lobbying organization MaryPIRG's two salaried non-student positions was one of the most contentious points of debate throughout the meeting.

"This is perhaps the easiest vote that we will have to make this year," SGA Speaker of the Legislature Kevin Ford said of funding MaryPIRG's salaries, noting the overwhelming approval students showed when they voted to continue MaryPIRG's funding in last year's SGA elections.

But that vote quickly became the longest vote of the year.

"We shouldn't be playing favorites; we should be holding everybody to the same rules," engineering legislator Carson McDonald said during debate.

Several SGA officials, including Director of Student Groups and President-elect Kaiyi Xie suggested absorbing some cuts so that student groups wouldn't have to: An amendment passed that cut more than $3,000 from the SGA's executive reserves, phone budget, operations budget and presidential expenses.

But for some, even that motion did not excuse the disproportionate award MaryPIRG was given.

"Funding them the full amount and making them the exception to the mandatory budget cuts ... is unfair to every other student group at the University of Maryland," said McDonald, who suggested MaryPIRG be funded about $11,000 in keeping with the mandatory cuts. "Every group at Maryland is making a sacrifice."

Members of MaryPIRG and WMUC Radio were the only student group representatives who came back to the meeting when they heard their budgets could be slashed even more. Others had not been notified that their allotments were being reevaluated.

When Jamie Forzato, business director of WMUC Sports, and several other members of WMUC arrived at about 2:30 a.m. to protest increased cuts, Forzato said Xie threatened them by saying if the group walked in, they would not be granted any money in appeals.

Xie denied issuing a threat, saying WMUC took his words the wrong way. He noted he was afraid the legislature would only give priority to the student groups who had representatives present, and therefore discouraged members from returning to the meeting.

"It's particularly sensitive right now, and I just didn't want people to think that we should give those groups special priority because they're the only ones here right now," he said at about 4:30 a.m. "The biggest thing I see wrong with it is that other groups can't be here to represent their case."

MaryPIRG State Director Johanna Neumann, who would receive about $22,000 from the SGA if it granted her salary, made an appearance before the organization for the first time this semester to tell the body exactly what they would be paying for.

"It's so essential that we have these salaries so that we can continue working on these issues," said MaryPIRG liaison to the SGA Brian Burrell, who is also the SGA's city council liaison.

meehan at umdbk dot com