STRIPES might receive more funds from MSA
Published March 5, 2004
STRIPES could receive a 53 percent increase in funding from the Missouri Students Association for the 2004-2005 school year, pending Senate approval.
The organization will have the same overall budget to work with, but it is expecting less funding from sponsors, MSA Vice President Kara Heppermann said.
STRIPES offers free rides to students on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The program was created in 2001. At the beginning of Fall Semester 2003, the program lost its free Campus View apartment and free use of cell phones from Sprint. The organization now pays rent for an apartment at Ashwood Apartments and uses members' cell phones.
"They asked for the extra money," Heppermann said. "They need that money to be able to operate, so they don't have to depend on outside sources to continue to keep running. Their explanation is that they will try to get outside sources, but with the economy doing worse, the outside sources don't necessarily have extra money for donations."
STRIPES Director Melanie Lambert said they also have to pay to make photocopies, a service that used to be donated by Kinko's.
Lambert said corporate sponsorship has been affected by the poor economy.
"I really think that has been a factor," she said. "We hear all the time that companies want to give us money, but they can't because they don't have the resources right now."
Heppermann finished her draft of the 2004-2005 budget on Tuesday. The Student Fee Review Committee will spend the next two weeks reviewing the budget and making any changes it thinks are necessary. Following its review, the budget will be presented to the full Senate, which will approve it sometime in April, SFRC Chairman Matthew Sokoloff said.
"The committee has yet to meet with STRIPES directors," he said. "We will do so within the next couple weeks."
Because STRIPES is still actively pursuing sponsors, Sokoloff said he'd like to know what the organization will do with the extra money if they are able to receive sponsor funds.
"If they do receive sponsors, we want to know where that money is going to go," he said. "I have faith in Melanie and her staff that they'll use the money effectively."
STRIPES has continued to receive increased funds from MSA for the past two years, Sokoloff said.
"Their funding has done anything but go down," he said. "Allocations given by MSA went up over 150 percent for the 2003-2004 school year."
Heppermann said one of her top priorities is to make sure STRIPES has the funding necessary to keep running.