Iris Denied Funding

Brett Bouchard

Cavalier Daily

Cavalier Daily

1988-03-23

Iris Denied Funding
By BRETT BOUCHARD
Cavalier Daily Associate
Iris, a 72-page journal concerned with women's issues, lost its appeal for student activity funding last night.
"Iris is the only woman-oriented publication on-Grounds and It is important to both students and faculty,” Iris President Lisa Bush said.
According to Vice President for Appropriations Larry Tanner, one reason council defunded the publication was that “for two years its expenses have exceeded its revenues.”
"Iris is out of debt and has every intention of remaining so," Bush said.
She said a new fund raising editor was recently appointed to increase subscriptions. "The sale of one issue this year has raised more money than Iris made all last year from sales,” Bush said.
Tanner said another reason Iris was defunded was “because it isn’t a true student organization.” Student Activity Fund regulations state that in order to obtain funding, the officers of an organization must all be full-time students.
"This year, the co-editors are not students," said Aileen Lopez, the Appropriations Committee member handling Iris’ appeal. “The editors control the direction of the magazine, contract with the printer and control the amount of money spent."
The 19-member editorial board of Iris is composed of 11 undergraduate and graduate students, and the remaining eight members are from the University faculty and staff and the Charlottesville community.
Bush said all the officers are members of the editorial board and each member has equal input in the decisions concerning Iris. “Iris would be a different kind of magazine if we only had student editors," she said.
“This mixture provides different perspectives vital to the magazine,” she added.
“The Appropriations Committee saw that the top officers, who are students, just had the titles,” Tanner said. "There was not real authority along with the title and this is the reason the committee defunded them.”
“The SAF regulations are to protect students,” Lopez said. "Students should control the funds in an organization.”
Bush said Iris was among nine other publications nationwide named as being outstanding in Ms. magazine.
“U.Va. is represented as a gentleman's school and Iris is a signal that there is a concern for women’s issues outside the University,” she said.
Tanner said, “Iris was started by an academic department and should be funded as an academic journal, not a student publication.
After the decision was read, Student Council President Geoff Monge stated another reason for defunding the group, which did not come out during the appeals process.
“SAF is prohibited from funding organizations that receive academic credit,” he said.
Since the president of Iris was also an intern earning academic credits the organization could not be funded by the SAF, Monge said.
“We appreciate the help of Student Council in past years and would like to be funded by them, but Iris is going in a different direction now because we've grown to include members of the community," Bush said.
Bush said she is hoping her group can get funding from some other University source.
“We're trying to get institutional support through University funding, but the decision has not been made yet," Bush said. "It looks hopeful, though.”