Student govt. more than triples funding for 'anti-racism projects'
The measure passed with unanimous consent and will increase student organizations' anti-racism initiative budgets from $3,000 to $10,000.
Several members of University of Michigan's student government expressed concern about the policy's implications for funding campus groups.
Last Tuesday, The University of Michigan Central Student Government (CSG) passed with unanimous consent additional funding for anti-racism programs in their upcoming fall budget.
Though the funding ideas included the cooking add-on for the New York Times subscription, which is already offered to students, the main topic of discussion centered around additional funding for various student organizations’ anti-racism projects.
Before approving the measure, the CSG debated whether to increase the already allocated amount for anti-racism initiatives from $3,000 to $10,000, Michigan Daily reported.
Advocates for the increased budget in anti-racism initiatives believed that it would give organizations new opportunities to pursue anti-racist projects an opportunity to do so.
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The decision to increase the budget in anti-racism funding comes as a result of racial justice student organizations requesting that the CSG set up a fund similar to the already existing DEI Fund.
The decision to raise the allocation in anti-racism initiative funding was met with backlash.
Per Michigan Daily reporting, CSG member Allan Vanzandt warned during the meeting that this policy may place a burden on the student government to allocate funding to organizations that often aren’t aware of how much funding they will need in advance.
Rather, Vanzandt argued the responsibility of the allocations should fall on student organizations.
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Additionally, Karthik Pasupula, who is chair of the CSG Finance Committee, reportedly said that the CSG had already earmarked a significant sum of money into anti-racism projects and that raising the funding cap made little sense.
However, several members did say that CSG needed to “right the wrongs” they were responsible for in the past and that they contributed to “inequities” by not standing by these groups more strongly, the university outlet quoted them as stating.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Michigan CSG; this article will be updated accordingly.
