During this year’s annual allocation meeting held by the Associated Student Government (ASG) on April 7, senators were met with conflicts throughout. After each Recognized Student Organization (RSO) settled into room 118 of Visser Hall, ASG senators addressed funding and accidently combined two RSOs who were in attendance. This was met with frustration from one RSO representative. 

As roll call began, each RSO was marked down for attendance. However, when it was assumed that two RSOs known as Print Guild and Glass Guild were together instead of being acknowledged as individual organizations, tensions arose.  

Kat Weltha, senior glass major and Glass Guild representative, spoke with Francis Tsounis, art education major and president of Print Guild, directly after attendance was taken to discuss the problem.  

“They clearly don’t even understand what print versus glass is,” Weltha said. “They’re our government, they’re representing us. They should at least know that we’re not combining our entities just because we both use the word ‘guild.’” 

The incident was far from personal, according to Tsounis. 

“They just have so many organizations to manage,” Tsounis said. “They probably would make that mistake with anyone else.” 

Weltha disagreed, arguing that ASG senators should make a better effort to know their RSOs individually. 

“If they’re going to take such responsibility as to be in the government then they need to f— act like it,” Weltha said. 

The new fiscal affairs chair had never overseen roll call for an allocation meeting before and may have been overwhelmed, according to ASG vice president and junior biology education major Lauren Moon.  

“Nobody wanted to hurt anyone’s feelings,” Moon said. “We didn’t intend to make an RSO feel like they didn’t matter or anything. I think it was just an honest mistake.”  

After working through this issue, a second problem was created for members of Print Guild who were in attendance in hopes to receive allocations.  

Allocations are funding given to an RSO who shows the financial need and are passionate about growing their organization, according to Moon. 

The amount for each group is capped at a certain number that changes each year. For the 2022-2023 school year, the amount available is $1,500 for a trip, $500 for a speaker and $50 for publicity, according to the Fiscal Affairs Committee. 

If an RSO doesn’t complete the multiple requirements needed to receive allocations, they are denied funds. This is precisely what happened to the Print Guild group on Thursday night.  

Print Guild is an organization on campus that focuses on printmaking that is created and sold in the community during Emporia’s first Friday art walks, according to Tsounis. 

“Every summer we go to Frogman’s Print Workshop in Iowa,” Tsounis said. “So, the money would have been for that which is fairly expensive to go to, so it’s unfortunate we won’t get the allocations for that.” 

While Print guild will not receive allocations for the 2022-2023 school year, they have plans to complete the requirements for next year to receive funding in the future.