Watchdog club gets $3,000 for ‘Abolish ASUN’
Members of the UNR Students for Liberty received nearly $3,000 on Saturday to fund an “Abolish ASUN Festival” in March. The event, which will feature ponies, bounce houses, a mechanical bull and snacks, was created to show how frivolously ASUN allocates and spends student-generated money.
The UNR Students for Liberty will host an Abolish ASUN Festival in order to raise awareness about the way student money is used on campus. The nearly $3,000 event, entirely paid for by the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, will aim to draw attention to frivolous spending of student money, Mary Hunton, UNR Students for Liberty president, said.
Despite the title, the purpose is not to abolish ASUN, Hunton said. The key goal is to show that ASUN needs stricter policies and guidelines in order to allocate student money. The festival, which is tentatively set for March 8, is expected to have two horses, two ponies, two bounce houses, a mechanical bull, 500 balloons and hundreds of dollars in snacks — totaling about $3,000 of ASUN money, Travis Hagen, UNR Students for Liberty treasurer, said. The unnecessary and strange array of events available is meant to show that ASUN will spend their money on unnecessary things if you ask, Hagen said.
“We want to start discussion about the accountability of where this money is going,” Hagen said. “The simplest way for ASUN to allocate money better is if they didn’t exist. If they didn’t spend money, then students could spend their money in a way they think is best, not ASUN.”
Some members of Students for Liberty, however, said that ASUN does some commendable work with their budget but not enough.
“ASUN does fund things that are important, but at the same time gives money for a lot of things that are just ridiculous,” Hunton said. “With the way the economy is going, their spending is just not viable. We want to point out the fiscal irresponsibility and point out that ASUN needs to make some changes.”
Hunton and former UNR Students for Liberty President Barry Belmont requested the funds Saturday, and they were approved later that afternoon after deliberation.
“Barry told them exactly what we plan to do for the event and what we plan to buy,” Hinton said. “We talked about the festival and there was about five minutes of awkward silence. But they didn’t have any problems or violations with our request.”
Director of Clubs and Organizations Patrick Delaplain said that despite the clubs anti-ASUN agenda, it is important to allow them the same right to money as any other club.
“Our goal as a department is to provide student organizations with resources and to further their goals,” Delaplain said. “We are happy to foster an environment of disagreement with our policies. The biggest mistake as a leader is to squash and squander others’ opinions. We believe this will further their goals and I hope it starts good discussion.”
When UNR Students for Liberty provided an explanation along with their budget request, Delaplain said a proposal like this was to be expected from the club. Hunton said that presenting thier budget turned out to be anticlimactic but still successful and something to celebrate.
“It’s no surprise that Students for Liberty would ask for money in opposition to the government,” he said. “But so far our policy has served us faithfully. As the director of clubs and organizations, I am excited about this event and happy to encourage dissent on campus.”
Tara Verderosa can be reached at tverderosa@nevadasagebrush.com.
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25 Responses to “Watchdog club gets $3,000 for ‘Abolish ASUN’”
You can find the video right here: http://unrforliberty.com/2010/02/sfl-secures-nearly-4-grand-to-abolish-asun-courtesy-of-asun.html
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The presentation of the UNR Students for Liberty’s budget is something to celebrate; it goes to show that ASUN will fund the events of student organizations in a way that is fair and without bias. I’m glad… that’s part of their job. The UNR Students for Liberty, on the other hand, just sought out to waste $3,000 on purpose. We all share that money… When a student organization requests funds, it’s part of their job to act responsibly and remember they’re pulling from a pool of funding that is split amongst all clubs. Every club received a 5% cut from each line item at this past funding hearing to accomodate all the requests from student organizations. I have to wonder if we would have all received 100% of our requests if the UNR Students for Liberty didn’t pull this stunt. They didn’t put a dent in the ASUN structure at all; Hunton and Belmont should have considered what they WOULD be hurting, such as many worthwhile events that other clubs are planning. No one’s going to blame ASUN for funding events in a way that is fair. However, I’m willing to bet a lot of students, though, will be more than disgruntled with the UNR Students for Liberty for wasting $3,000 of their money. This event might be a joke, but the funding they used for it is certainly real.
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While I find this whole thing pretty entertaining, and it does a great job of pointing out the weak points within ASUN’s funding policy, I think the best thing for this group to do is to NOT spend the money they were allocated. It’s one thing to prove the point that ASUN’s funding policy is like swiss cheese. It’s another to prove that point and then waste $3,000 of the student’s money. If this group really is supposed to represent “libertarian students” they should take solace in the fact they proved their point, but they should do the fiscally responsible thing and cancel the ponies.
If they go through with this little event, it only shows they can waste student money just as well as ASUN and they have no room to criticize. They should return the money and then work with an ASUN senator to create a law that cleans up the funding policy so something like this doesn’t happen again.
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Sorry, that’s not how this works.
It’s one thing to say the emperor has no clothes…and quite another to hold a mirror up to him.
We are that mirror.
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Barry, haven’t you already held up the mirror? Going with your metaphor, if you spend the money, you’re no better than the emperor, in fact, you’re taking off your clothes too. You’ve made your point, don’t waste student money simply because you can, be better than ASUN.
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If you actually spend the money on this event all you will be showcasing is that you care more about making ASUN look bad then you actually care about fiscal conservancy.
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Juliet, how is this wasting money?? Have you been to a budget hearing? I know for a fact that SFL is not the first club to ask for a bounce house, balloons, and snacks! Nearly every club on campus asks for pizza. At least SFL has an agenda, whether you agree with it or not. And its really not your right to say that it is a waste of money. If a club wishes to hold an event, that is their right as a recognized organization of ASUN. You say “ASUN will fund the events of student organizations in a way that is fair and without bias”, maybe you should try a little bit harder to be without bias yourself. Try to think of this event as a way to promote communication between students and their government, you may be surprised how many students disagree with ASUN and this event might let some of those students voice their opinion.
Broke, I agree with you. Although I fully support their effort and agree that they should not use any of the money, giving back the money will only fund other organization’s pizza and bounce houses. It would be unfair for the commissioners to say you get money for pizza but you dont! SFL deserves to use the money allocated and have fun with it just like all other clubs before them have enjoyed the money they have been allocated.
At the very least, even if you dont agree with SFL, at least it sounds like a fun event! And if you all care so much, hold an event in opposition to SFL.
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1) Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IcwENj4tqM
2) Sign the petition: http://AbolishASUN.com
3) Go to the festival to celebrate: March 8, JCSU Lawn – 10AM – 2PM. There will be ponies, pizza, drinks, bounce houses, a mechanical bull, and so much more… all paid for and taken from you, by you.
4) Spread the word! Join the facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=378298702288
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Should we hit our children to teach them that hitting is bad? Or should we teach a man who murders someone’s wife that murder is wrong by murdering his wife? The point you guys are trying to make is commendable. But the method in which you are doing is ridiculous. It seems as if your “agenda” is to ridicule ASUN and mock its spending policies by expertly navigating and taking advantage of its bureaucracy. Instead of wasting the students’ money to show them how ASUN is wasting their money, do what broke student suggested and not spend it. Because if you think that the students are suddenly going to notice when you start wasting their money instead of ASUN, well then you are as foolish as ASUN, arn’t you?
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Are you suggesting the navigating the funding policies of the ASUN is comparable to hitting a child or homicide? Seriously, do you even hear yourself?
You clearly already disagree with what ASUN does, why not recognize *that* and support this (abolishasun.com) rather than lash out and the very people you agree with.
…oh and if you think no one is going to notice us wasting money, um, well, hate to break this to you champ, but it obviously worked on you…
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UNR SFL are a bunch of libertarian/anarchocapitalist pansies who preach “Austrian Economics” even though they have no grasp over the subject at all. Their quest to waste money that other clubs could spend on pizza is pointless, and they are equally as gay as ASUN.
Your Abolish ASUN campaign will not work. You guys are a bunch of social rejects. ASUN has more popular people. Stop wasting our money and go study General Macro Theory. Then you will realize that your almighty god Ron Paul is a moron and you will stop being such extremists.
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This just shows how important government regulation is; the ASUN funding system gives groups a large amount of freedom in what they do with funds. If people like this are allowed to do as they wish they act irresponsibly.
Libertarians, anarchists, and their ilk are all the same. They are like petulant children who don’t want to listen to their parents. They need to get over themselves and realize that they are not the special unique snowflakes that their parents told them they were. They are just like every other unremarkable student at this university, they just whine more.
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You guys are wasting money to call attention to ASUN wasting money?
Way to poison your own well.
The only people who will join SFL now will be doofy, fringe, self-glorifying dumbasses who think they understand economics because they watched a Ron Paul youtube video.
Oh wait. That’s almost every Libertarian.
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Let’s be rational here:
Shame on ASUN for giving students access to the funds that students have paid for. Better yet, shame on ASUN for trusting students to use that funding in positive ways on campus. Yes, some students waste the club funding they receive (SFL for example), but there even more clubs and organizations that greatly benefit from this funding. I fail to see how UNR SFL could be so upset with ASUN for giving students access to the money they have been putting into the collective ‘pot’. If one club gets funding for an event they couldn’t have put on without said funding, then all of the students in that club are benefiting from their ASUN fees. Not to mention the students that attend that event and/or join that club are ALSO benefiting from that fee. It’s student money, given to students, used to entertain/recruit/educate other students…yeah, shame on ASUN.
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i wish government would affect me MORE in my daily life. i want MORE protection, i want SAFER streets, i want BETTER schools, i want CLEANER water, and i DON’T want to pay for any of it.
thats what GOVERNMENTS are supposed to do? how am i supposed to pay for school or electricity or food without the government doing it all for me.
why should i be responsible for myself?
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This is very interesting. The Students for Liberty have been contradicting themselves from day one. Promising things they couldn’t do (remember UNR start?). This is another stupid act to get attention.
If you have a problem, Barry and all the other “Students for Liberty”, with ASUN wasting money, quit wasting more. Basically what the “SFL” are doing here is wasting OUR money.
What most of the clubs requesting money for is something that is advancing our education. What you are doing is stupid.
We, the students of the University ask that you return the money or do something more constructive with it.
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Metaphor – a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.
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I think it’s amusing that these students even call themselves Libertarians….look into the mirror…you are attending NEVADA – A government subsidized land grant institution….if you were so self righteous, shouldn’t you be attending a private University?
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That clears it right up!
Guess we should just shut this whole thing down. You’ve convinced us. Yep. Yessiree. We’re obviously just idiots. Our apologies for holding such pointlessly stupid opinions.
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They are hypocrites. They hate all government except when it benefits them. They should be proposing the downfall of the school or the state itself, but they have no problems with them receiving the benefits of tax payers who subsidize their educations. Instead they whine and complain about the small “tax” enacted on them. They’re a bunch of pasty, whiney, scrawny, nerds who need to get lives and get over how they were picked on in high school.
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In response to “Oh So It’s Only Metaphorically Like Killing Your Wife!”…I don’t believe kyle ever said your opinions were stupid or pointless. In fact, I believe the term he used was COMMENDABLE. It was the manner with which you are trying to prove your point that he disagrees with. Perhaps you should have practiced reading as a child.
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Oh thank goodness you came along to introduce me to this idea of reading. Phew. You know, I’ve heard about this (every now and then), but I never really knew what it was that I was supposed to do with it…I had teachers that told me I should read Shakespeare and Moby Dick and what not, but NO! it’s for deciphering Kyle Comments on the Sagebrush comment section!
Now if only someone had taught Mr. Kyle (of Kyle Comments on the Sagebrush comment section!) had to convey a coherent point, I might not have mistaken that he equates abolishing ASUN through mockery was akin to murdering a woman and beating a child.
My mistake! Sorry Oh Ever-Great Evan!
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I wasn’t aware that kyle’s statement: ” The point you guys are trying to make is commendable,” was a convoluted statement that needed “deciphering.” And kyle doesn’t “equate” anything. He stated it was a metaphor. Words are important.
Yours truly,
Oh Ever-Great Evan
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Comment #11, while not without flaws, is the most coherent statement of policy in this thread.
Y’all is all mad gay.
Stop getting mad over money, Randroids
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You guys don’t seem to understand the real message here. I don’t blame you, as SfL are not stating it clearly enough.
Their stunt is to hyperbole that waste within the ASUN system is unavoidable; therefore, the silent statement here (which is alien to non-Austrians) is that student fees which are charged to provide for the ASUN and its functions should be revoked as well.
It’s standard, non-aggression principle, free market theory. When two people with pooled funds cannot reconcile what money should be spent where, they spend their own funds independantly of eachother.
With the ASUN (and its associated costs) removed, those who wish to start a club can do so under their own means with the money they have retained via lessened fees. Reciprocally, Peter does not have is funds coersively stolen to pay for what Paul wants, and Peter will never use. It’s the most fair and efficient system concieved.
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