Students planning the Pow-wow of Love for February 2005 say raising funds is especially stressful this year because the event is being held a month earlier than usual.
Members of North American Indigenous Student Organization, or NAISO, will put on their annual powwow in 66 days.
The powwow committee has collected about $10,000 to fund the event, but it will cost about $60,000.
The love-themed event is scheduled to take place Feb. 11-13, the weekend before Valentine's Day - more than a month before the usual date of the powwow.
The annual powwow is a celebration showcasing the traditional drumming, singing, artwork and dancing of American Indians. This year it will be held at Jenison Field House.
Traditionally, the students request donations from hall governments, Residence Halls Association, ASMSU, local American Indian tribes and other departments within the university.
Because of a university rule, the planners are not allowed to collect donations from the MSU departments until the semester in which the event is taking place, NAISO members said.
Because the event is being held in February, this means the group can't request donations until January - just more than a month before the powwow.
"We're doing the best we can with the time we've got," said social relations and criminal justice sophomore Ashley Hoath, the RHA representative for NAISO.
Students working on the powwow also said the event should be institutionalized and paid for by the university as a whole rather than by separate departments.
Although the students often have felt that way, they have not voiced their concerns.
They plan to discuss the funding issue with administrators this spring, said Jeff Gargoshian, a member of the powwow planning committee.
NAISO spokeswoman Holly Newland said the need for centralized funding for the powwow has often been discussed among NAISO members.
"It's always been talked about as long as I've been here," Newland said. "It would just ease the burden because the powwow is a huge deal. We're students, too - I work for the (Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs), and I also have another job, and I'm taking a full set of classes. And the powwow is like another part-time job."
University of Michigan and other universities currently provide institutionalized funding for their powwows, Gargoshian said.
Ashley Harding, co-chairwoman of the powwow committee, said collecting all the money only a month before the event doesn't let them focus on the actual planning of the celebration.
"We have to focus all on the money - it does take away from the cultural aspect of the powwow," she said.
The students said receiving funding from a consolidated source would make fund raising less strenuous.
A consolidated monetary source provided by the university would be appropriate considering the magnitude of the event, Harding said.
"I don't see why Michigan State University hasn't put any funds toward the powwow," she said. "It is one of biggest student events on campus and one of the longest running ones."
