The Associated Students Organization Finance Committee held a planning session Tuesday, May 20, to discuss the large number of funding requests received from student organizations at El Camino College.

The unofficial meeting was a continuance from the ASO Finance meeting Tuesday, May 13, in which requests for funding totaling more than $160,000 from four student organizations were discussed.

“I anticipate 7-10 other requests coming in by Friday,” Director of Student Development Ricky Gonzalez said during the May 13 meeting.

The deadline for programs to request ASO funding was Friday, May 16.

Though area dean approval is required prior to submitting requests for funding to ASO, ECC’s administration instructed programs to reduce the number of students participating, therefore, reducing the requested dollar amount.

“There are some programs that are not coming back … There’s going to be some continuers and some returners,” Gonzalez said.

At the meeting Tuesday, Gonzalez said 17 more requests for funding were received by the deadline, meaning that ASO needs to schedule 17 presentations by the ASO Senate meeting on Thursday, June 5.

ASO Vice President Isaac Alpert suggested not entertaining presentations due to the estimated four hours needed.

Austin Toney, ASO student activities advisor, suggested everyone being present for a Q and A instead of presentations.

Gonzalez said that Finance Committee members need to prepare themselves for the reaction to their decisions, adding that programs that are denied their requested funding will question what is being done with the money.

“We trust you will make the best decision as the Finance Committee,” Toney said during the meeting.

ASO Director of Finance Mia Wroe said 20 programs applied for funding from ASO.

“They’re unprecedented numbers. We’ve never had 20 programs apply,” Wroe said after the meeting. “If we total up the requests it’s … pretty much $306,000.”

Wroe added that discussions will continue to evaluate the funding amounts.

“There’s going to be a closed session, which is deliberations, and then closed sessions is where it will just be purely the committee,” Gonzalez said after the meeting.

Gonzalez said the funded programs will receive printed criteria for receiving funding at the special meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 27, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It’s going to be tough to, kind of, see what programs you want to fund,” ASO Student Trustee Wesley Marshall said after the meeting. “Personally, I don’t want to turn down any program.”