By ROSS WEINER
What really happened with SCOPE? Are they not going to hold Spring Weekend? As a USGA Senator, I will tell you what exactly happened with SCOPE and the miscellaneous request.
As we all know, any club or organization can get money from USGA miscellaneous account. SCOPE had money cut last year from their budget, so they decided to go to miscellaneous to get the money for the weekend events.
In September, SCOPE went to the budget committee and asked for over $100,000 from the miscellaneous account for weekend events, extra money in their budget and Spring Weekend. The budget committee agreed to give them the money.
According to the USGA constitution, any budget request over $3,500 must go up to USGA. So SCOPE’s request for weekend events was denied by USGA because we felt like it was too excessive a request. They asked for over $80,000 to run their weekend events, but during this meeting USGA voted that SCOPE get over $30,000 extra dollars for Spring Weekend. SCOPE has a budget over $250,000 to run Spring Weekend, so why is SCOPE complaining that they cannot throw Spring Weekend if they have a budget over $250,000?
They are complaining because USGA did not want to give SCOPE an extra $31,000 for their weekend events. It would have emptied out the miscellaneous account until rollover came. This would have meant that other clubs and organization on campus would not get money to run their events until rollover came. Nobody knows how much rollover would have been or when it would come. This notion that SCOPE has to cut Spring Weekend is ridiculous.
SCOPE requested over $80,000 for weekend events. If they had to take $80,000 out of Spring Weekend it would mean there would have to be a cut in Spring Weekend, but Spring Weekend would not be canceled.
It is absolutely wrong of SCOPE to hold the USGA hostage for money. A lot of clubs’ budgets have been cut and they are not writing articles in the Charger Bulletin threatening USGA. I understand where SCOPE is coming from, but SCOPE must realize that there are other clubs and organization that need miscellaneous money from USGA.
I am asking for the head of SCOPE to apologize to the student body for threatening to cancel Spring Weekend.
Disclaimer: According to SCOPE, there was never an intention to cancel Spring Weekend, only to limit some of the larger activities associated with the event.
