MSA votes down Greek Week contribution

Supplying $1,000 would have given MSA chance to act as co-programmers.

By Kaylen Ralph

Published March 12, 2010

The Missouri Students Association voted to not contribute $1,000 to Greek Week expenses and programming fees. Only after amending the act to remove any financial obligation on behalf of the association did it pass.

The act, which was passed by and organized through the Campus and Community Relations Committee, described the financial contribution as a chance for MSA to co-program with Greek Week.

"CCRC has done joint programming in past years, and we thought that Greek Week would be a great one to choose for this year because it is the largest student-run event in the month of April," CCRC Chairwoman Lisa Grelle said.

The $1,000 in question would have come out of the portion of the MSA budget known as the Contingency and Reserve Fund. According the bylaws, contingency and reserve funds are not to be used to fund non-MSA events unless MSA will act as joint-programmers of the event.

In the past, MSA has used upwards of $1,000 in contingency and reserve funds to sponsor events. Senate Speaker Evan Wood said the proposed plan was not a legitimate joint programming opportunity.

"It's my understanding that the partnership with Sustain Mizzou was a co-programming event where MSA had a say in exactly the way it was going to work, and that sort of co-programming, I'm in favor of," Wood said. "I did not see that as a realistic opportunity with Greek Week, with or without the $1,000."

With the $1,000, the MSA/GPC logo would have been on the official Greek Week T-shirts, which was described in the act as a way "to reach target audiences throughout the university."

Grelle said the money and participation would have helped to establish relations between MSA and the Greek Life Community.

Some MSA members, including MSA President Tim Noce, said more could be done to improve relations.

"The idea behind the bill was to increase relations," Noce said. "Unfortunately, in the Greek Community, money does play a big role. Sometimes the idea is that if you're not willing to write a check, how supportive of it are you? It's kind of like money backs up your idea."

Wood said he agreed having a good relationship with the Greek Life community is important for MSA, but allocating funds to Greek Week was not the answer.

"You can't just send a check to Greek Week and then say all our problems are over," Wood said. "I think to build a relationship you need to have human interaction, and I believe that was the most valuable part of the bill."

Wood said this was the reason why he chose to amend the bill rather than vote it down completely.

"The reason I proposed the amendment, after all, is because another thing CCRC was pitching is that this would be a way to better our relationship with the Greek community through cooperation, and I think that's a noble thing," Wood said. "That's why I proposed the amendment."

Grelle said the amended act is one that would still be somewhat effective, despite its divergence from the original purpose.

"I think that the amendment stripped the bill of its full effectiveness," Grelle said. "However, I do feel that our presence in cooperation with Greek Week will still have an effect in establishing relations. The effect just might not be as strong."