They got the members. They got the papers. They got approval. But when students involved with the new Registered Student Organization, The Claws and Stripes, asked for operational funding from the Student Activities Council, they got rejected.
When he began forming a new political organization on The University of Memphis campus, Brandon Gravley knew he was the first to start a third party.
He followed the directions he found on both the SAC Web site and the instructional flyers he received.
Nowhere did he find stipulations on distribution of operational assistance from the SAC office to Registered Student Organization. The flyer states, "Each Registered Student Organization is given the opportunity to use approximately $400 a semester." The flyer points out that these funds are only available until they are depleted, but fails to distinguish between legitimate uses for funding.
"I called and left a message regarding Helmsman ads and they called me back and said, 'We can't give you funding because you are a political organization,'" Gravley said.
According to The University of Memphis operation procedure, "No funds shall be used to finance ... partisan political activities."
However several other organizations with partisan values have received funding from SAC.
Both the College Democrats and the College Republicans received funding for advertisements and to make copies of flyers.
"The funding is a case-by-case basis," said Katy Lizarraga, assistant coordinator of student activities. But the money from the student activity fees has since been depleted.
Lizarraga said the money could fund, "an ad for a meeting or a speaker on campus, but not a candidate speaker."
"If someone was wanting to promote his candidacy that would not be OK," she said.
The purpose of The Claws and Stripes states it will work "to support and promote Claw members and affiliates on The U of M campus and to organize and participate in political activities which promote members of the party" making the party objectives too narrow.
"The purpose was to promote the candidacy of that ticket to the SGA," Lizarraga said.
The College Democrats' and College Republicans' purpose is broader, she said.
However, Lizarraga said that "if the College Democrats came in and wanted to run an ad supporting John Kerry, that would not be OK."Gravley said that he changed the advertisements to promote party meetings and the office told him he would not be allowed.
"If another student organization came in, they should have the same rules apply to them as the Democrats and Republicans," said Bill Marty, political science professor and faculty advisor for the College Republicans.
Lizarraga had no answer about the office's refusal to fund the new party.
"We have never run into this before, we had to go on policy, and that is how the entire staff interpreted it," she said.
Lizarraga said that the SAC staff understood The Claws and Stripes to be an organization for personal gain.
"We don't view them the same as other organizations," she said.The ultimate purpose of all three organizations, however, is to promote its candidates.
"If the handbook makes it clear that partisan organizations are not supposed to be funded, then that should be applied to Republicans, Democrats and everybody," Marty said.
Gravley said he does not want SAC to pull the funding on other organizations. He just wants funding for his organization.
"What I want is the same interpretation that other RSOs receive," Gravley said. He said he does not want to be punished because he was the first to organize a new group.
