PRIDE!Kent President Chris Taylor talks in front of the USS allocations committee yesterday morning. USS approved funding of a AIDS/HIV education campaign. GAVIN JACKSON | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Carl Schierhorn

The Allocations Committee unanimously passed PRIDE!Kent’s appeal for funding for its AIDS awareness programs.

During the meeting yesterday, PRIDE!Kent President Christopher Taylor presented the changed program costs to the committee. In the Dec. 9, 2005, meeting, PRIDE!Kent and co-sponsors cut their budget from $5,700 to $3,732. Since then, the budget has been reduced to $1,177.

Most of the money would go to 1,000 11-by-17 inch posters, Taylor said. The rest would go to supplies, such as index cards and popsicle sticks, for the AIDS memorial. The memorial was originally supposed to have 120,000 names, Taylor said, but they had to cut the number of names to 40,000 because of time limitations.

“It’s what we can do with the time we have left,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of time left.”

Kevin Folk, Allocations Committee chair and Undergraduate Student Senate business and finance senator, could not attend the meeting. John McConnell, governmental affairs senator and Allocation Committee member, acted on Folk’s behalf.

McConnell read a statement from Folk concerning the e-mail requirement placed on PRIDE!Kent and its co-sponsors at the USS appeal. In the statement, Folk said he supports the AIDS programs because of the number of e-mails he received.

In his discussions with Folk about the e-mails, McConnell said Folk told him he realized the importance of the AIDS programs, but he needed the undergraduate student body to show it support.

Following the meeting, Taylor said while the appeal passing didn’t surprise him, he expected more deliberation during the meeting. He said Folk’s statement surprised him the most.

“I didn’t think that many really would do it (e-mail Folk to support the program),” he said. “We hoped that people would.”

McConnell said PRIDE!Kent continually coming back to get the programs started showed the programs’ strength and validity. He said he looks forward to seeing the program in place.

Contact minority affairs reporter Bryan Wroten at [email protected].