Daily Egyptian Politics Editor

Registered Student Organizations will have less trouble requesting money this year because Undergraduate Student Government’s Finance Committee is revamping its RSO funding process, its chairwoman says.

Joyce Newby, chairwoman of the Finance Committee, said the cumbersome funding request forms used in the past are simpler this year. Previously, the 12- to 14-page form was a complicated maze of questions. The new forms, though 10 pages long, follow a more logical order than their precursors and are worded differently to ease reading and responding.

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Newby said part of the overhaul is to provide fair treatment of all RSOs during the annual funding process. In the past, some RSOs have become disenfranchised with USG as a result of difficulties related to the funding process.

For example, last year the undergraduate literary magazine Grassroots was denied money by the Finance Committee, partly because no member of the RSO could attend a spontaneously announced hearing with the committee.

Friction developed last semester between Grassroots and USG when the Finance Committee recommended that the magazine group receive no money after it missed a deadline for the fall appeals process.

This time, RSO officers will pick the time when they will meet with the committee for a hearing. The dates for hearings are March 21 and 22.

RSOs wanting funding for next year must obtain a form from the USG office and complete it by March 20. Forms have been available since Feb. 17.

Although completing a funding request package does not guarantee that an RSO will be funded by USG next year, it does significantly increase its odds.

USG will vote on the Finance Committee’s recommendations from the funding process March 25.

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Newby said she hopes RSOs will feel they were treated properly by the Finance Committee this year.

Basically, we want RSOs to know that we’re being fair, she said. Everyone has a clean slate.