During the Student Government Association campaign and
presidential debate, an issue that has become more widely-discussed
is a mandate that was made by University President Lawrence Biondi,
S.J., last summer, which required student organizations who receive
funding from the University to hold their events on campus when at
all possible.

“The mandate, on its face, has some merit; however, over the
course of the year, student organizations have run into a few
problems with it, including things like higher prices to stay on
campus or facilities that are not conducive for what the different
organizations want to do,” SGA President Nick Sarcone said.

Recently, members of some organizations have said that the
mandate is a detriment to their activities because it forces
organizations to stay on campus for events even though the
facilities might not be as conducive for their purposes.

And there is no room around the mandate because student
organizations must go through the University accounting department
to receive any of the funds they have been allocated through the
funding process. Therefore, defying the mandate is virtually
impossible.

This issue directly correlates to a larger shared-governance
issue, which has been on the back burner of the current SGA’s
agenda and is now being debated among SGA candidates.

Some organizations are already finding the mandate
burdensome.

“[Black Student Alliance] usually has an event in the spring
semester off campus. We spend about $200 to rent out a hall and
another $200 to have it catered. However, because we have to have
it on campus this year, the prices have been raised,” BSA member
Taylor Gaddy said.

Gaddy went on to elaborate on the cost structure of the event,
and stated that it will cost BSA $200 more in total cost for this
event because of the additional catering costs of Chartwells, the
campus food-service provider..

While the additional costs that organizations have to pay is
definitely one aspect for the current SGA, and the University’s
administration to consider, another aspect they will have to
revisit in the future is how it is decided if University facilities
are, in fact, conducive for the events that different organizations
want to hold.

For instance, the Graduate and Professional Students
Association, the umbrella organization for all of the various
graduate school organizations at Saint Louis University, typically
holds one social event a year and invites all current graduate
students.

This year, because of various constraints, notably that there is
no suitable venue on campus to have the event, the GPSA will not be
holding this event.

“We usually try to get a place with a very social setting and
make it as laid back as possible. We have done it at Humphrey’s and
Laclede’s and places like that in years past, but there is not a
place like that on campus that we were able to use,” Fahrney
said.

GPSA did inquire about the availability of Wackadoo’s but it was
informed that it could not rent out the entire restaurant because
of the liability. GPSA typically spends approximately $2,500 for
the event to buy food and beverages, including alcohol. Because of
the prevalence of minors in Wackadoo’s, there was too much of a
liability involved for the event to proceed.

The GPSA is not the only organization in this boat; inevitably,
more organizations will eventually find themselves in the same
pickle as the GPSA and as the BSA.