A student organization is scrambling for funds to pay a speaker who visited campus recently.
In response to past troubles on campus with various groups, Interfraternity Council (IFC) along with Panhellenic voted to have a mandatory speaker for their members this semester.
The Jan. 24 speaker was Rick Barnes, who presented “Drink Think: A Personal Approach to Alcohol,” which focused on averting alcohol problems on college campuses. On his website, http://www.rickbarnespresents.com, he notes that this presentation is his number one program.
IFC was required to send in an appropriation to SG to receive funding for this speaker, but did not submit the documents before the deadline.
This miscommunication was due to IFC elections happening around the same time, as the old and new board members both thought the appropriation had been settled.
As a result, IFC has to pay for the speaker.
“This is a situation where they wanted to bring in a speaker for a big topic and things got lost in translation” said Casey Stevens, Assistant Director of Civic Engagement.
Stevens handled this matter. As with events such as these, she signed the contracts for, approved and scheduled the speaker after IFC completed their research.
Since IFC did not have the funds at the outset, Stevens paid for the speaker through a Greek life account, which is what IFC must pay back.
“This was a student-driven initiative,” said Stevens.
IFC is currently fundraising and asking other organizations to help with their funding.
They have already received $1,000 from Panhellenic, and NPHC said they wouldn’t be able to contribute due to unavailable funds.
IFC has also asked the athletic department for funding. Larry Marfise, Director of Athletics at UT said, “We are reviewing our budgets now to try to find some money to help out, in so much as our athletes attended the event.”
IFC paid Barnes $4,000, which Stevens says is an average rate for speakers among college campuses.
President of IFC Ryan DeBock did not comment on this situation.