The Student Service Finance Committee granted $41,155 to Native American student group Wunk Sheek for their 2019-’20 budget during its meeting Monday.
Wunk Sheek requested a 20 percent increase in their budget for the upcoming fiscal year, although they had not spent the entirety of their budget from the previous year.
Some representatives expressed concerns about the increases to the budget, questioning the necessity of some of the club’s individually planned expenses for events like Native November and Indigenous Workshops.
“[Wunk Sheek] mentioned they wanted to use that for making moccasins,” said Rep. Max Drescher. “But I don’t know if that is the best way to spend those funds — $400 for a couple people’s leather moccasins.”
Other representatives defended the organization’s cultural programming. They offered support for the increased budget, citing incidents last year where Wunk Sheek leaders had to cover the club’s costs with their own money when parts of their funding ran short.
“I reject the idea that we are able to discern what is valuable to the program or not,” said Rep. Jon Kim. “I think there needs to be better reasoning brought up.”
One aspect of the groups’ budget that was called into question related to their funding for Native November, seeing that they returned over half their budget for the program last year.
Vice Chair Zaakir Abdul-Wahid raised a concern that it was the group’s “first ever year with a budget,” stating they were “projected to spend all the funds” on this year’s programming.
