Many Student Government campaigns have focused on funding Recognized Student Organizations on campus. But none have clearly stated how they will raise the funding.

If RSOs are going to get funds, the tuition will more than likely need to be increased to pay for it, said President Lou Hencken.

“Already students’ tuitions and fees are going through the roof,” he said. “I raise the question: Do the students want to see their fees go up to cover the cost of RSO funding? If not, where is the money going to come from?”

Presidential candidate Sean Anderson said he wants to take funds that are being wasted and put them into eligible RSOs.

“(We need to) give more money to the organizations that are putting on events for the whole campus,” he said.

Anderson said that money spent on the Big Red Dot Campaign could be put toward RSOs.

“(The campaign was a) waste of $500 of students’ money to publicize ourselves. Five hundred dollars could have went to an event or something.”

Presidential candidate Jillian Ruddy said it would be difficult to fund RSOs on campus, because there are so many and some do not actually help organize events for the entire campus. She said that it would be better to increase funding for special events.

“Not all organizations would be eligible for funding,” said Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs.

Any RSO that discriminates against student membership would be ineligible, he said.

He also agreed that an increase in tuition and fees would probably be necessary to fund RSOs.

“We work really hard to try to keep fees as low as we can,” he said. “Students . would have to look very, very closely at what the cost would be.”

Hencken said that if the Student Government used their surplus, RSOs might be able to have funding for a couple years, but after using up the surplus, other means – most likely student fees – would be cut into.

“It all comes down to the bottom line,” he said. “Do the students want to increase their fees to do that?”