This is more than half of this year's additional money, and a significant leap for two organizations which received zero dollars last spring semester. Loyola University, according to Jon Ness, Greek adviser, is approximately 18 percent Greek. The money allocated to Panhellenic and IFC, he said, is intended to send representatives from each of the sororities and fraternities to a Undergraduate Inter-Fraternity Institute conference and to fund Greek Week. Thus, approximately 82 percent of Loyola's student body will not be affected or benefit from this money. The implications of these budget allocations are appalling.
Academic publications demonstrate the academic output of the students at a university.
For SGA to cut the budgets of many of the organizations which produce these journals is for SGA to say that they are opposed to the intellectual exchange of ideas which earmarks universities in the minds of graduate schools and employers. These social organizations collect dues from their members which run into hundreds of dollars per person per semester. This amount of money should allow them to exist independently within the university setting without detracting from those facets of the school which are essential to advanced learning, such as publication. Beyond the actual allocations, I find most appalling the fact that no one is willing or able to explain this very apparent change in SGA budget policy.