The Student Assembly voted to reject the Student Assembly Finance Committee’s recommendation to reduce funding for the ALANA Intercultural Board, the Multicultural Greek & Fraternal Council and the International Students Association at their Oct. 9 meeting. In the aftermath, Vice President of Finance Hayden Watkins ’28 explained how the committee arrived at its proposals and what comes next in an interview with The Sun.
For the 2025-2026 academic year, ALANA — a student organization that promotes diversity and intercultural understanding while providing supplementary funding to 138 student organizations — received $14 per student. The board requested $16 per student for 2026-2028, but the Finance Committee initially recommended just $9.90, based on estimates of ALANA’s total budget and the assumption that many of its affiliated organizations could receive support through the Student Activities Funding Commission, according to Watkins.
Watkins said the committee believed many of ALANA’s affiliated groups could be funded through SAFC rather than ALANA directly, based on the information that 66 organizations had SAFC funding.
After further review, the committee found that nearly all of ALANA’s affiliated organizations — except for a group of organizations deemed ‘The Big Five’ by Watkins — already receive SAFC support. ‘The Big Five’ — Black Students United, La Asociación Latina, Cornell Asian Pacific Student Union, Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell and South Asian Council — are funded directly through ALANA and cannot receive SAFC funding. Recognizing this, the committee acknowledged it needed to reassess its recommendation.
During the meeting, Afsheen Alvi ’26, co-president of ALANA, expressed disagreement towards the funding recommendations.
“Cornell cannot be world-class if it is not open to the world, and being open to the world means supporting every student across it who trusts Cornell to protect them.” Alvi said. “This begins at the very initial level of supporting our programming and our attempts to share internationalism with Cornell's campus.”
The Student Assembly’s funding process begins, early in the semester, with byline organizations submitting applications and meeting with the finance committee to present their budgets and answer questions. After these sessions, the committee deliberates and votes on funding levels, with recommendations later sent to the full assembly for approval.
When it comes to calculating the exact dollar amounts for funding recommendations, Hayden stated there is not a strict formula, noting that there is a mix of both methodology and judgement.
Ahead of the Assembly meeting, ‘The Big Five’ encouraged students to “Pack the Vote for ALANA” on Instagram, drawing roughly 130 attendees.
Watkins reflected on the student response, saying, “If I was in the position of a lot of these students, I probably would have responded the exact same.”
The finance committee also faced criticism regarding MGFC. For 2024-2026, MGFC was allocated $2 per member and requested $3 per student for 2026-2028. The committee initially recommended $0.90 per student.
Watkins said the recommendation was influenced by MGFC’s reserve funds.
“The finance committee felt that a lot of the money that had been allocated wasn’t really being spent. MGFC also had a lot of reserve funds; in one year, the reserves weren’t touched at all, and in another, only three or four of the 14 organizations used them,” Watkins said.
New details from MGGFC’s petition of the finance committee funding recommendations led Watkins to reconsider his stance. He states that after discussing with their financial account manager, it was revealed that groups had actually already spent much of their reserves.
Club Sports Council and the Slope Day Programming Board both received funding increases — about 22 percent for club sports and 25 percent for Slope Day.
Hayden stated that these increases were due to a “a consistent theme in their funding requests was the rising cost of travel.” He continued, stating that "many mentioned that it has become significantly more expensive to bring performers to campus, and that was the main reason the finance committee ultimately decided to increase Slope Day’s funding.”
He also stated that these club sports, in particular, “help build community” in a similar way that ALANA does. “It's just the various ways for people to be able to build community while they’re at Cornell,” Hayden said.
Ava Osorio ’28, vice president of public relations for LAL, criticized the decision to increase funding for club sports and Slope Day while cutting funds for cultural organizations.
“The Student Activity funding allocations show that Slope day and club sports are receiving an increase of over $306,000 while ALANA, ISA, MGFC and the class councils, the organizations that uplift our cultural identity based and student-led communities, are facing costs totaling over $148,000,” Osorio said. “It's a statement of whose voices matter on this campus and whose don't.”
The Student Assembly is now scheduling another finance committee meeting with these organizations to revise funding recommendations.
“Public comment and how people feel about allocations of the Student Activity Fee are really important to me,” Watkins said. “If students feel that they want their money to be used a certain way, I’m inclined to listen.”
Emma Galgano is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at egalgano@cornellsun.com.
