â??The (Student Organization Programming Center) has great potential to be a one-stop shop for student organizations. I hope they take advantage of it.â?

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) debated Tuesday night the fate of the Student Organization Programming Center (SOPC), which was closed down this past semester due to lack of use.

SAC split the meeting into halves, beginning with an open discussion on how to revamp the center for student organizations. The second half focused on old and new business involving grants for various student organizations.

The SOPC is an office available for all student organizations on campus to use for activities and as a resource center. However, it is considered a separate student organization.

“It is a student org that helps student orgs,” said Student Association (SA) Vice President Jon Tingley.

SOPC is located in Room 366 of the Union. Although it was open at the beginning of this school year, the center is currently closed. When the office will reopen is still up in the air, but the location will remain the same.

Likely daily hours for the re-opening of the SOPC would be 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., although the hours may be cut a little due to the lack of use in the office when it was open.

“The office was totally underutilized last semester,” said SAC Vice-Chair Tobin Huibregtse. “It was usually empty.”

With the lack of office space available in the Union, the availability of a versatile office for all students would give student organizations some additional breathing room.

“The SOPC has great potential to be a one-stop shop for student organizations,” said SAC Chair Dan Bahr during the open forum. “I hope student organizations take advantage of it.”

The forum only lasted about 15 minutes however, as few student organization leaders attended to voice their opinions on the office.

Later in the evening, SAC dealt with funding grants for several student organizations.

Old business on the agenda included a travel grant request by the Association of Graduate Students in Psychology (AGSIP), along with grant requests by the Student Investment Club and Loyalty Equals Brotherhood.

Representatives from the Student Investment Club and Loyalty Equals Brotherhood were not present, and their requests were tabled indefinitely.

Four charters for new student organizations were approved as part of the agenda“s new business, including the Metal Klub and Che Wisconsin, an Argentinean student organization.

A $216 request for a telephone by the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society was denied after deliberation.

AGSIP had two travel blankets approved throughout the night. One approved request was for a women“s research conference in San Francisco for $560, and the other was for pediatric psychology conference in Cincinnati with a blanket of $600.

> Comments