The Board for Student Organizational Funding of the Associated Students of Colorado State University decided not to fund the Greyrock Review for their upcoming publication.
The Greyrock Review, a literary journal that showcases undergraduate creative writing works, asked BSOF to pay $860, with $800 going towards funding the printing fee of the journal. BSOF funded the printing fee of the journal last year for its 2016 edition.
BSOF, which is responsible for granting student organizations funds to host events, considered the printing fee capital expenditure, defined in the BSOF Bylaws as “anything with more than a one-time use.” BSOF does not provide funding for items considered capital expenditure.
Michael Wells, the ASCSU Director of Finance and Chair of BSOF, said the board believed the journals had the potential to be used again after the event.
“The reasoning behind that from one board member was ‘this journal contains literary value that could be presented on throughout the course of the year, therefore providing more than a one-time-use,’” Wells wrote in a statement to the Collegian.
Wells goes over the updated bylaws with student groups and meets with them to help them be more successful when presenting to the board so they may receive funding.
According to Wells the board voted to fund the $860 requested, but the $800 allotted to the printing fee would need to be allocated to something within the confines of the BSOF Bylaws.
Baleigh Greene, the managing editor of the Greyrock Review, said the journal declined BSOF’s offer to allocate funds for the journal’s release party event because it would be unnecessary.
“(Wells) said … they’d be happy to get another speaker or more marketing, but really it was a $50 fee for the event and the speakers are going to be the students themselves, so we’re not paying them at all,” Greene said. “He was essentially offering us $50, so we said, ‘we appreciate it, but that is not what we need right now. We really need this journal to be printed because if it can’t be printed, we can’t have the event.’”
Greene said the Greyrock Review team was disappointed with BSOF’s decisions because they have been working with Wells since the beginning of the semester to understand the application process and secure funding.
“(Wells said) ‘sometimes clubs have to go through this several times and this was funded for your event before so it shouldn’t be a problem,’” Greene said.
Greene submitted an application and received suggested edits from Wells the following week, then resubmitted it with changes. When Wells sent the application back to Greene again, he informed her that the printing fee might be considered capital expenditure and the two groups discussed what that meant.
“We went in again to the office to talk to him and he said ‘we want to fund the event, (but) we just can’t do this,’” Greene said. “This really is not a capital expenditure. We’re getting rid of every single one of (the journals). We are just asking for printing.”
Greene said that the Greyrock Review understands that BSOF has specific requirements, but is disappointed that they could not receive funding this year like they did last year.
Wells said funding for student organization events is not guaranteed from year to year since criteria can change.
“A major change from last year’s bylaws to this year’s bylaws was the addition of the definition of capital expenditure,” Wells wrote. “This may have played a factor in why the board was more aware and alert to this being a ‘capital expenditure’ in this year’s decision as it was not clearly defined last year.”
Collegian reporter Haley Candelario can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @H_Candelario98.
