AS money available to clubs

Your student government wants to give your club or organization free money to fund on-campus events. Each year Associated Students, Inc., allocates thousands of dollars to subsidize on-campus events, but these funds are consistently underutilized. This unspent money could have been put to use helping students.

So, this year, we want to buck this trend. We want to see students completely deplete the $113,000 allocated for club funding in the 2006-2007 ASI Budget.

We firmly believe that student clubs and organizations significantly benefit our campus. They are essential to ensuring a vibrant on-campus community, they provide fertile forums for students to develop leadership skills and they contribute to the rich cultural and artistic heritage of our campus.
It is imperative that ASI continues to financially support the many activities of the 215 recognized groups. To that end, we have been, and remain, very vocal advocates for using ASI money to support clubs and student activities.

But, we need you to submit more applications. Since November, it̢۪s been easier to do this: submit the application at least three weeks in advance of the event if applying for less than $1,000; submit the application at least five weeks prior to the event for $1,000 or more.

If you are a member of a club or organization, apply for ASI funding for your next event. If you are not a member, join a club that fits your interests (check out the free list in USU 306), or found a new one. Our campus, like our nation, benefits from the proliferation of viewpoints and activities.

Time is running out. We encourage you to download a funding application from our website and submit it. We are happy to assist if you need help. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://as.csufresno.edu.

Josh McDonald and Esmeralda Santos
Associated Students

Response to Bush criticisms

Refuting Ms. Portillo̢۪s argument that the Bush administration is censoring comments from the scientific community about global warming will be difficult considering I only have 250 words to do it in and there were numerous egregious statements.

To begin, I found it ridiculous that she would write this article when she admits that she, “cannot honestly say that I can dig up a decent argument or reason for all this.�

Anyone can just make outlandish statements if they do not need any facts, evidence, or reasoning for coming to their conclusions. For example, World Weekly News is constantly reporting about Big Foot sightings and women who give birth to alien children.

The second major item of discord that I must address is the comment that, “our president seems a little too pre-occupied these days to be pestered by melting glaciers and ozone-related deaths.�

Are you kidding me?

In case you have been in a cave on Mars, we have a major war on global terrorism that the United States, in conjunction with the rest of the free societies of the world, have been addressing for the past five years. Please excuse President Bush for “wasting time� addressing this issue.

Also please forgive Bush for “shooting the breeze� with economists as he addressed an economic recession in his first term.

Daniel J. Snider
Accounting
Senior