By DAN BAUER
[email protected]

With Allegheny Student Government’s decision on whether or not to accept funding requests from Greek organizations on the horizon, students on both sides of the argument are up in arms.
In the past, ASG’s finance committee has treated requests by Greek organizations as they would requests from any other organizations, entertaining the request at their weekly hearing and making a decision as to whether to provide funds.
A $600 request made by the sorority Alpha Chi Omega to fund their upcoming Man of the Year event, a male beauty pageant that benefits Women’s Services, sparked the debate on ASG’s financial role in Greek life.
On Tuesday, members of the Greek community were invited to ASG’s weekly Senate meeting to voice their opinions on ASG funding.
Despite a request from the finance committee that the Senate pass a resolution that night, the discussion was tabled until next week after a lengthy debate.
Advocates for both viewpoints were vocal.
“Greek organizations are not ASG-recognized organizations,” said Brett Bacon, president of the class of 2011. “And they just don’t really budget well.”
Bacon introduced a motion in the meeting to pass a non-binding resolution to cut off funding for Greek organizations, including loans.
The motion failed by a narrow margin.
“If we do have to cut something,” Bacon said, “I would prefer to cut individual funding over Greek Life.”
Bacon stressed that something has to change in the finance committee’s policy.
“This wouldn’t be an issue if we didn’t run out of money last year,” he said.
Some students, however, disagreed with this approach to save money.
“If ASG doesn’t have the money, that’s because they aren’t managing their money effectively,” said Nam Hoang, ’11, the former president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
“By not allowing Greek organizations to request funds, ASG limits the student body from doing great things,” Hoang said. “Cutting off funding would affect the student body more than Greek life.”
He pointed to the various charitable and social events Greek organizations hold during the year as proof.
“Greeks should be treated like any other organization,” Hoang said. “If we mishandle our money, we should be punished.”
Alyssa Klemmer, ’11, the president of Kappa Kappa Gamma, felt that by having their funding cut off, Greek life would be getting “penalized.”
“While we are a dues-paying organization, we’re still paying members of the Allegheny community,” Klemmer said. “Our money goes towards ASG’s funds.”
“There are times where we are trying to expand and make an event more inclusive. That’s when we ask for money,” Klemmer said, in reference to the criticism that Greek organizations are exclusive and therefore not entitled to ASG funds. “It’s not something we rely on. It just helps.”
Despite the contention over the issue, the general consensus among ASG members was not to enact any resolution until next semester in order to give Greek organizations a chance to draw up new budgets.
Though no resolution was passed, the meeting ended on a positive note for Greek life.
Acknowledging the timely nature of the requests and ASG’s history of funding Greek events, the Senate  voted to pass Alpha Chi Omega’s $600 request, as well as to approve a $100 loan for Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Halloween party this Saturday.
The discussion, with hopes from the Senate to pass a resolution, will continue at next week’s ASG meeting, held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Campus Center.