The Student Association at George Washington University has awarded significantly more funding to the university’s branch of College Democrats than to the university’s branch of College Republicans for the 2016-2017 academic year.
According to the Student Association’s 2017 budget, the GW College Republicans requested $19,757 from the SA for the school year, but was only granted $2,000. The GW College Democrats requested $49,471 and was awarded $13,000.
Furthermore, the GW College Republicans and GW College Democrats requested $17,000 and $15,000, respectively, to pay a speaker at their “kick-off” events. College Republicans received only $2,000, while College Democrats received $10,000. Both speakers have yet to be announced.
In rejecting all but almost a tenth of what the College Republicans requested, the SA cited in their budget book, “Since your organization has not yet confirmed the Fall Kick-off Speaker, the SA Finance Committee was unable to completely fund the speaker honorarium. This year, we have increased our cosponsorship budget because we are encouraging organizations to come for cosponsorships for speakers once the price, date, speaker, and all other logistics have been formally (and hopefully contractually) confirmed. However, we have provided $2,000 as a down payment for your Fall Kick-off Speaker so that you may immediately begin planning.”
The SA encouraged College Republicans to “come back for a cosponsorship for the rest of the payment once the details are confirmed.”
A GW College Republican executive board member, who requested to remain anonymous, told Red Alert Politics, “[The College Democrats] shouldn’t have received a quarter of the money they requested when we only received a tenth.”
The GW College Democrats were granted more money because it was expected their event would be held during the first week of the school year. The event has yet to occur.
