The Residence Halls Association held a meeting Monday to entertain funding requests from the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee and the Fine Arts Residential Community of McDavid Hall regarding two future events on campus.
The requests totaled $2,750, but the legislative branch had only $2,035 to distribute this semester. At the end of the meeting, there was $335 left in the legislative branch’s budget.
The first funding request came from Kaylan Holloway, a representative of the MLK, Jr. Committee. On Jan. 25, the organization will hold its annual commemorative event for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called “Share the Dream: Live the Reality” which will host Larry Wilmore, the “Senior Black Correspondent” from Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, as this year’s speaker.
“This event is an opportunity to remind and educate residence hall students on the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his life work as well as stress the importance individuals can positively make in a community for social justice and inequity issues,” Holloway said.
The commemorative event is free and open to the public. Holloway asked RHA for $750 to go towards the speaker honorarium of $10,000, part of the event’s projected $15,000 expenditures.
The representatives held a short discussion before putting the motion to a vote. Some argued the organization would likely receive funds from other businesses and organizations besides RHA and proposed a lower allocation. After putting it to a vote, RHA representatives decided to allocate $500 to the organization in order to preserve funds for future requests.
The second funding request came from McDavid Hall community adviser Joe Hills. Hills asked for $2,000 on behalf of the Fine Arts Residential Community in the hall to fund “FARC: The Musical,” a show Hills said is completely student designed, written, scripted, composed, published, promoted, acted and performed by McDavid residents.
“It gives real-world experience to every student involved with every facet of the musical creation process,” Hills said. “So far we have involved over 50 residents of McDavid as well as a few ‘Honorary FARCers’ and I refuse to turn anyone away who wants to be involved.”
The money will go towards reserving the Missouri Theater for March 22. Because RHA only had $1,535 left in the fall semester budget, it could not meet Hills’ request fully.
“FARC: The Musical” is a love story about two freshmen living in a residence hall and all the quirky neighbors that come with community living. During the pre-voting discussion, representatives said they felt need to support this show because it is all about college culture and supports a small and very unique residential community on campus.
Representatives also said if they give money to the show, it could help kick-start an annual tradition of student-written and student-produced performances in McDavid that would grow in popularity each year.
RHA proposed several amounts to allocate to Hills. On the ballot were $0, $1,000, $1,200 and $1,535. The representatives voted to allocate $1,200 to “FARC: The Musical.”
With only two weeks left in the semester and $335 remaining in the legislative budget, it is likely the funds will roll over into next semester’s budget to fund more events and projects.
