After everyone’s favorite a capella group the Hangovers missing the deadline to receive reimbursement from the SAFC for the $5,500 they owed the Cornell Sherwoods, the intrepid group did the only thing they could: get a government bailout. At last night’s meeting, the SA passed Resolution 56, giving the singers the money they needed to pay for the concert the Sherwoods, an alumni a capella group, had performed.
A series of miscommunications between the Hangovers, the SAFC, and the Sherwoods left the Hangovers holding the tab when they missed the early December cutoff date to apply for reimbursement for the expense from the SAFC. The SAFC, though, allows no exceptions to its policies, and it ruled that the money, which had already been allocated to the Hangovers, would be returned to the SAFC general fund.
However, this $5,500 is a mere drop at the bottom of the pitcher when seen in the light of the more than $100K surplus the SAFC reported it still has after last semester. This enormous sum is made up of unspent or unclaimed money which had been allocated to student groups in the fall, but will be rolled over for use this semester.
After much debate, the SA decided that the money to pay for the Hangovers’ mistake would come out of this surplus fund. The representatives were hesitant to pass the resolution for fear that it would set the dangerous precedent of allowing groups to miss their funding deadlines and still have their bills paid anyway, but the fears were not enough to dissuade them from making the first-ever student government bailout of a financially-underwater club.
While the Hangovers seem to have been the night’s big winners, their victory did not come without a sobering shove out into the sunlight; their funding cap for the spring semester will be limited to exactly $5,500 less than it would have been otherwise.
hilarious!