2008 Woodie Awards
AUSA attempts to end dispute
Vietnamese group declared bias in funding denial
Caddie Nath
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: News
The Diversity Committee and the Board of Contingency, both part of the AUSA Senate, met last night with representatives of the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) and ended a two month conflict over funding.
The meeting, held in the Graduate School of International Studies at 9:15 p.m., was a continuation of a discussion that was cut off at last week's Senate meeting. Clarion reporters were not permitted to attend last night's closed session.
"It is going to be a closed-door meeting," Joel Portman, senator and Diversity Committee chair, said prior to the meeting. "It will involve a resolution of personal issues."
At the end of the hour-and-a-half meeting, the Diversity Committee and Board of Contingency stood by their final decision not to retro-fund the Vietnamese New Year's event, sponsored by the VSA.
The refusal to fund this event sparked the dispute between VSA and the two Senate committees.
Commenting on last night's meeting, VSA vice-president Vincent Nguyen said, "We feel like there are still a lot of issues unresolved. It was a closed meeting, but we felt outnumbered, that our voices were drowned."
Hong Vo, president of VSA, expressed a similar sentiment: "They were listening, but they weren't listening effectively. They admitted to us that they could have done a better job with the process."
Both Nguyen and Vo commented after last night's meeting that they wished it had been open to the press.
In February, VSA applied to the Board of Contingency and Diversity Committee for about $4,000 each to defray the cost of the Vietnamese New Year's celebration hosted by the organization. The event cost about $30,000, according to VSA representatives, most of it paid by ticket sales and outside funding.
The application for funding was declined entirely by the Board of Contingency and approved for $300 by the Diversity Committee, which decided that the event could not be considered inclusive to the entire DU community.
According to Javier Ogaz, chairman of the Board of Contingency, the decision was made based on the nature of the New Year's event.
"The committee decided that the event placed students in a backseat. It wasn't geared to DU students."
His committee decided that because it was primarily oriented to the non-DU community it did not merit the amount of money requested.
The VSA's New Year's celebration, the Tet Gala, was held at the Hyatt Regency in Denver in February. It was a large scale event open to the Denver community as well as the DU community.
"Our goal was to unite students and the community with an event of cultural appreciation," said Nguyen.
The meeting, held in the Graduate School of International Studies at 9:15 p.m., was a continuation of a discussion that was cut off at last week's Senate meeting. Clarion reporters were not permitted to attend last night's closed session.
"It is going to be a closed-door meeting," Joel Portman, senator and Diversity Committee chair, said prior to the meeting. "It will involve a resolution of personal issues."
At the end of the hour-and-a-half meeting, the Diversity Committee and Board of Contingency stood by their final decision not to retro-fund the Vietnamese New Year's event, sponsored by the VSA.
The refusal to fund this event sparked the dispute between VSA and the two Senate committees.
Commenting on last night's meeting, VSA vice-president Vincent Nguyen said, "We feel like there are still a lot of issues unresolved. It was a closed meeting, but we felt outnumbered, that our voices were drowned."
Hong Vo, president of VSA, expressed a similar sentiment: "They were listening, but they weren't listening effectively. They admitted to us that they could have done a better job with the process."
Both Nguyen and Vo commented after last night's meeting that they wished it had been open to the press.
In February, VSA applied to the Board of Contingency and Diversity Committee for about $4,000 each to defray the cost of the Vietnamese New Year's celebration hosted by the organization. The event cost about $30,000, according to VSA representatives, most of it paid by ticket sales and outside funding.
The application for funding was declined entirely by the Board of Contingency and approved for $300 by the Diversity Committee, which decided that the event could not be considered inclusive to the entire DU community.
According to Javier Ogaz, chairman of the Board of Contingency, the decision was made based on the nature of the New Year's event.
"The committee decided that the event placed students in a backseat. It wasn't geared to DU students."
His committee decided that because it was primarily oriented to the non-DU community it did not merit the amount of money requested.
The VSA's New Year's celebration, the Tet Gala, was held at the Hyatt Regency in Denver in February. It was a large scale event open to the Denver community as well as the DU community.
"Our goal was to unite students and the community with an event of cultural appreciation," said Nguyen.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 15
Kenneth Phi
posted 4/08/08 @ 11:44 AM MST
Processes in the committee were followed as directed and concretely as for every student organization. The reward of $300 towards this seemingly unethical event was reasonable compared to the amount left in the Diversity Committee's funding. (Continued…)
KennethPhi
Kenneth Phi
posted 4/08/08 @ 11:49 AM MST
Processes in the committee were followed as directed and concretely as for every student organization. The reward of $300 towards this seemingly unethical event was reasonable compared to the amount left in the Diversity Committee's funding. (Continued…)
Sammie
Sammie
posted 4/08/08 @ 12:01 PM MST
This article was bias but all I can say is that the student organizations that oversee the funding have strict guidelines for groups who request for funding has to meet AND there is a limited budget. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 4/08/08 @ 12:31 PM MST
Why weren't there any advertisements for the Tet Gala on Campus?? I think AUSA was right when they said that they felt the event wasn't gear towards students. (Continued…)
James
posted 4/08/08 @ 1:44 PM MST
There were advertisments on billboards in Sturm and DCB, they did not last long, but they were there.
Viet
posted 4/08/08 @ 2:32 PM MST
There should be a public hearing and a decision based on facts, intstead of hearsay and speculation. One of the arguments must not be factual.
Bob
posted 4/08/08 @ 2:59 PM MST
There shouldn't be a hearing because there's nothing to hear. The judges in this situation was the committee... Decision was made, game over. Stop doing events that the school won't support if you want money coming from student funds. (Continued…)
VSA on YouTube
posted 4/08/08 @ 6:21 PM MST
If you were unable to make it to the show or did not know about the show you can view some of the performances at these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1WjeivoAM
http://www. (Continued…)
Phung Nguyen
posted 4/08/08 @ 7:54 PM MST
What seems to happen a lot in many universities, not only at DU (I go to UCD), is that clubs geared towards diversity do not get a substantial amount of funds during the distribution process compared to other clubs. (Continued…)
Anon
posted 4/08/08 @ 8:13 PM MST
Ok, no one said the Gala was unethical, no one said changing to VSA Denver was a bad thing. From what I understand, funds given to organizations should be used to for something to get students involved and so forth. (Continued…)
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