As President one of my first priorities for the SPFB commission is to ensure that students have access to the hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated for distribution as soon as the first half of Fall Quarter. This past academic year students were unable to access SPFB funds until late Winter quarter, which was detrimental to the many non-profit organizations on campus.
Next, from my experience working in the ASUCI Senate’s Finance Committee, I’ve found that it is essential that all matters of funding from ASUCI must work closely with the Senate and be as transparent about their issues as possible. I want to make sure that all funds directed from SPFB are also approved by the Senate’s finance committee so that we can be as objective and transparent as possible when allocating large amounts of funds towards different RCO’s. This will ensure that funds aren’t distributed based on personal connections and nepotism, but rather for need and merit. Nevertheless, I will still focus to ensure that organizations are funded in a timely manner and I will work closely with the Senate to develop a plan to streamline this process so that student requests can be approved within a week of submission.
Finally, I want to allocate a minimum of 30% of SPFB funds to Cultural Organizations on our campus. From my experience working with multiple Cultural Organizations on campus, they often find themselves lacking the funds to host large scale events for our student body and are largely reliant on ring road booths for revenue. Hence, I believe by setting a minimum quota for allocation, the Office of the President will be able to encourage funding to be distributed to these cultural orgs so that they will be able to promote their culture and heritage here at UCI.
TL;DR:
• Ensure that RCO’s are able to obtain funding latest by Week 5 of Fall Quarter
• Ensure that process of receiving funds is as objective and transparent as possible
• Allocate 30% of SPFB funds towards Cultural Orgs to promote cultural awareness and inclusivity on our campus