. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nap Time!!!

Friday, October 06, 2006
Yay! Fun!

Come on, somebody sue. There are serious equal protection issues raised here. Apparently, Greek organizations can get money from both the Greek Philanthropy Fund and the Senate Contingency Fund. But since this sorority discriminates based on sex, funding it through the contingency fund is illegal. Not that that stops ASUC folks. Consider the defense:
"I believe this group should receive (more funding) because of their programs and because they are serving the Cal community as a whole," CalSERVE Senator Carolina Jauregui said. "I think we need to again reconsider what groups we are funding, who we are funding, and whether that is fair."
Note that there is no nod in the general direction of the legal issues. The only issue for these folks is "but I wanted to!"

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 10/06/2006 12:13:00 PM #
Comments (3)
. . .
Comments:
The ASUC can't fund groups that are discriminatory, period, doesn't matter what fund it comes from. Greek philantrophy funds specific events, which puts things in a gray area. It's sorta like contracting out to a discriminatory group to run an event, but not really giving them money.
 
"can't" is such a strong word when talking about the ASUC.
 
Sororities and fraternities are one of the two groups exempt from Title IX on the national level--the other, in case you're curious, are the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Student Action has been fairly clear about federal law trumping ASUC law in the past few months, don'tcha think? Seems like poor form to change their logic now.

Note also that culturally-based fraternities and sororities have been funded as SISGs for the past several years because their primary function is service as opposed to IFC and Panhell Greeks who also (in most cases) offer housing and social events. They could also fund events from the Greek Philanthropy Fund...ya know, 'cause they're Greek. And reminder, those events don't dictate who participates, so even if you can consider the organization as a whole discriminatory, if you're funding a non-discriminatory event, its not really a problem.

This hasn't been a problem in years past, its a problem this year because SA has such an intimidating control of the senate and the people in culturally-based Greek organizations don't vote for them. And if they took the time to talk to Greek leadership, I would guess that they don't like it either (I know the Panhell President spoke out the first time this was brought up)--its devisive and makes it very difficult to foster a sense of community across the councils.

My prediction: this continues, CalSERVE advocates cutting the GFP in spring budgeting since half as many groups are able to use it and because the only reason its gotten used in years past is that SA-based fraternities take huge chunks of the money towards the end of the year to ensure its depletion, Student Action campaigns on a platform of "CalSERVE is Anti-Greek." Do you think they're smart enough to think this out in advance, or does their douche-baggery just magically work out for them due to some pact with the devil?
 
Post a Comment


. . .