NORFOLK – The student government at Old Dominion University recently voted to allocate $5,000 dollars to a student group to attend the International Dublin Gay Theater Festival, but the school’s College Republicans say some of that money is rightfully theirs, and they had planned on using it to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference next month.
The student government voted Feb. 18 to allocate the money to Starving Artists, a campus student production company that provides opportunities to participate in aspects of theater before graduation. According to a student senator who opposed that bill, Starving Artists requested the funding to travel to “The International Dublin Gay Theater Festival.”
Originally it was conveyed by the student government president at Old Dominion – a public, research university in Norfolk, Virginia – that Starving Artists was the only college invited. However it has now come to light that the campus troupe had applied to attend the event. What’s more, the finance director for the student government is president of Starving Artists and is slated to attend the gay theater festival in Dublin.
The $5,000 allocation ended up being $2,000 more than what a student government subcommittee had agreed to give the artists for their trip. And the troupe had already secured $7,000 dollars for the trip through the dean, department of Arts & Letters, their own group budget, as well as from other departments.
It all seemed like a typical, spirited student bill, which took a chunk out of the budget in the name of “equality” and “tolerance.”
However, a member of the university’s student government has told The College Fix that close to $800 dollars of funding was pulled from the College Republicans to fund the Dublin trip. The money in question was a carryover from the semester before, as it had not been used. In order to complete a carryover of funds at Old Dominion, an organization must request that leftover funding be transferred to the next semester or it’s lost.
In an email exchange provided to The College Fix between the Vice Chair of the CRs, Alex Neff, and the finance director from the student government, Conner Norton, that proviso was met. The email was titled “ODU College Republicans – Transferring money.”
“Mr. Norton,
This is Alex with the ODU College Republicans and I wanted to be able to transfer $1,125 from our speaker money budget to the budget for CPAC. (Conservative Political Action Conference) I was wondering if you could to that as soon as possible, thanks. We would greatly appreciate it and just ask if you need anything from our end.”
In response to this request came this reply:
“Dear Alex,
That will be no problem, I’ll have that done before the end of the day.”
Not only did the response confirm compliance with the request, the funds were indeed transferred.
However it seems that $800 dollars has been taken back, as the request did “not comply” with the official way to conduct such actions, because College Republicans did not specify that they wanted the money transferred to the spring semester budget, when the Conservative Political Action Conference takes place, say some in the student government. They added that there is no way they could have known when CPAC was, despite the College Republicans continuous attendance at the spring event.
Making matters worse, the funding for CPAC will not be returned anytime soon. But a student senator plans on introducing a bill next week to reinstate the funds. Norton also has the ability to return the funds, but has declined thus far, claiming his hands are tied.
Jay Lacano, chairman of the College Republicans, told The College Fix: “Not getting the money over a legitimate error is one thing, but over a technicality is another. It is suspect that the money they have allocated benefits the SGA Director of Finance and his group.”
Alex Neff, the vice chairman, added: “Mr. Norton is using his station for his own personal gain.”
College Fix contributor Michael Sobey is a student at Old Dominion University.
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