The first few ASNMU meetings have come and gone, the most recent of which took place on Tuesday, Sept. 8. It included public comment regarding a loss of nearly $5,000 worth of funding to Queers and Allies, updates on the Wildcat Farmers Market and updates from ASNMU’s executive board.

“We found out on Monday [August 25] through trying to buy business cards and stickers that our Office of Diversity and Inclusion had to rebrand to the Office of Opportunity, Empowerment and People, and as such can no longer fund our organization due to ‘preferential treatment,'” said Queers and Allies President Abigail Strassburg. “With this change, we no longer receive funding for advertisement, Lavender Graduation, Multicultural Graduation and lastly the Drag Show through their Diversity Mini Grant. In previous years, events like Lavender/Multicultural Grad were planned, funded and hosted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”

Strassburg brought this development to ASNMU’s attention to validate if Q&A can still secure funding through the Student Finance Committee.

“We don’t think its a big ask,” Strassburg said. “We have delivered time and time again … you guys have audited it for many years. We have done this for 29 years, we should still have our funding. So I hope we can still have funding through the Student Finance Committee, signed so that we can at least have that.”

Q&A said the change to the Office of Opportunity, Empowerment and People has affected most funding university-wide, as the Office of Housing and Resident Life is currently unable to provide their usual amount of $2,000 as well.

“We emailed Housing asking for a copy of this new policy that affects how they as an office can now fund student orgs,” Strassburg said. “Housing stated that they don’t know of the official policy that changed how they can fund student orgs and that we should instead reach out to our advisors to get them to learn for us.”

ASNMU saw members speechless, shared their condolences and tried to steer Q&A through the proper channels, as the SFC is independent of ASNMU. ASNMU’s treasurer Tommy Roush, also the chair of SFC, provided guidance on how to go through funding and how he was unaware of these campus-wide cuts to Q&A. Many ASNMU members offered their help.

“If you need extra staffing for events to raise funding or reaching out to people in the community, we as individuals would be happy to help you,” said Off-Campus Representative Ruby Joseph. “I want you to know that we want to continue to support our Queer and Allies student population on ASNMU’s campus the same way we support all students; that has not changed.”

This meeting also saw two members join SFC through vote: Molly Lindow and Kelly Dunlavy. The meeting also saw some initiatives start to form like posting about ASNMU offering free Plan B to students, which can be picked up at the student organizations office during its operating hours and its Career Closet, which allows students to pick one free donated business outfit per semester. In an update on the Wildcat Farmers Market, the event is open an hour longer than last year and will also have free Zumba and yoga for eventgoers.

The first meeting saw little action from ASNMU as they were getting into the swing of the semester.