For the second time, the Associated Students of Madison Student Council denied the UW Panhellenic Association funding Wednesday for a group-sponsored speaker, Harlan Cohen, who spoke on campus Monday.
UW-Madison students Mollie Shambeau and Sarah Anderson appealed for an additional $1,500 to cover the cost of Cohen after the ASM Student Judiciary ordered the Student Council to hear their appeal Aug. 30.
Cohen's presentation, Tapping the Keg of Truth,"" addressed the issue of binge drinking among college students.
The student group argued the neutrality of the argument was breeched following remarks that ""tainted"" the funding decision in its initial presentation to ASM in July.
""There were mistakes made'¦ It won't happen again,"" Finance Committee representative Supreet Shah said.
The debate lasted nearly 45 minutes, in which time Shambeau and Anderson failed to provide substantial evidence that the event benefited more than just the Greek community.
According to the group, 750 students attended the event, which was short of an expected 1,200. In the original pitch, 600 of these students were predicted to be from the Greek community.
""We would love to do speakers like this for the whole campus,"" Shambeau said regarding the nature of the event.
With a vote of 13 to three, the council denied the student group the additional grant to cover the cost of Cohen, who according to the group has yet to be paid.
""This is student money, so we want to make sure this is going to benefit students in the best way possible,"" said Brittany Wiegand, a Student Council representative, of standing by her previous decision.
ASM, however, later granted funding for the Memorial Union Bash and the Madison World Music Festival.
Musical redundancy was the largest argument against funding MWMF, but after several minutes of debate, the council voted unanimously to grant $6,666.66 to the event.
The annual Memorial Union Bash took place Sept. 2, and the MWMF begins today and runs through Saturday.
