In a move applauded by some representatives and deemed "shady" by others, ASMSU's Student Assembly passed a bill giving $9,000 to support the Indian culture show Satrang.
In a lengthy debate Thursday night, some representatives were concerned that Satrang, which is produced by an affiliate of the Asian Pacific American Student Organization, should have gone through ASMSU's Programming Board for the money.
"APASO was not willing to represent its own members," said Rob Huber, Student Assembly representative for the group. He said the group has 14 affiliated subgroups and members didn't want to financially support one group if they couldn't support the others.
The event did not come before the Programming Board. Instead, the bill was introduced to give the $9,000 to the Department of Student Life.
Marty Ruel, director of the Department of Student Life, said most of the money would go to Satrang - which will cost almost $50,000 - and any money left over would go to other programs.
"Our goal is to reduce student stress and support student programming. Satrang doesn't need to be in the middle of this," she said.
Kevin Glandon, Student Assembly vice chair for external affairs, said he hoped the program would receive full funding, but the assembly has had problems in the past from registered student organizations coming before the assembly for money.
"We're not as experienced as (the board members) are in that issue," he said.
Organizations are not allowed to ask for money from the assembly's Special Projects, but college departments and individual programs can.
Assembly members rewrote the bill to give money directly to Satrang, instead of the Department of Student Life.
College of Engineering Representative Matt Warpinski adamantly debated against the bill on the grounds that in asking for money for Satrang, the Coalition of Indian Undergraduate Students and the Department of Student Life were bypassing the system to receive money.
"There are channels to go through - we would set a precedent to allow them to go through loopholes," said Warpinski, who supported the event.
Others acknowledged the bill might go around code, but the benefits of passing it would outweigh conflicts.
"It's like saying, 'I can't save you from drowning, it's against our code,'" said Farhan Bhatti, College of Natural Science representative. "Our priorities are misplaced - we need to set aside our ego and think about what our purpose is."
North American Indigenous Student Organization representative Shannon Webster said she understands codes are important. Having worked on funding the Pow-wow of Love in February, she said she knew how hard funding can be to find.
"As long as we acknowledge we are competent in how we're spending money, troubles they have going through the systems are not their fault," she said.
