*UPDATE* SGA releases statement on anti-abortion presentation

Jazmine Rodriguez, chair of the Student Government Association Services and Public Relations Committee, has released a statement concerning the situation with the Genocide Awareness Project and SGA funds:

"On Wednesday, January 13th, 2010, members of the Financial Allocations for Organizations Committee funded a speaker to attend Students for Life's Genocide Awareness Project. Students for Life is a registered student organization and is eligible for funding, as are all registered student organizations. Students for Life was funded to bring a speaker to their Genocide Awareness Project which was said to be taking place Tuesday, February 16th and February, January 17th.

The images portrayed outside of the Student Union were in no means funded by the Student Senate. The organization paid for those materials through their own means and did not present the controversial posters to Senate when the organization applied for funding. Furthermore, the Student Senate was also not aware of the content that would be presented at the display outside of the Student Union. As stated previously, the Student Senate did not allocate any funds towards posters or promotional materials, but only to a speaker.

The Student Senate, also known as the legislative branch of the UCF Student Government Association, is composed of fifty-two student leaders who are elected by the student body each year. The Senate works with students and represents them to the administration and to each of their colleges. The Senate also works with the many student organizations on our campus to provide them with the funds necessary for travel, conference registration, and event planning for organizational events or conferences."

. . .

An allocation of $1,000 from the Student Government Association helped to bring the controversial Genocide Awareness Project to campus last week.

The display included large signs and posters depicting unborn or aborted fetuses along with images of recognizable massacres, including Cambodian killing fields, the World Trade Center attack, the Holocaust and other  acts of mass violence.

SGA Comptroller Shane Chism said the SGA Financial Allocations for Organizations Committee allocated $1,000 to the group  Students for Life in order to pay costs for hosting the project.

Students for Life is an anti-abortion student organization on campus.

The group petitioned for $6,500 in order to bring the project to UCF. The FAO Committee approved a total of $1,000.

Chism said the group requested funding for expenses including transportation, housing, staff and volunteers, food and supplies, communication, training, education and mailing.

 Erica DeSanti, SGA senator and chair of the FAO Committee, said Students for Life has not been previously funded to bring the Genocide Awareness Project to campus.

She said that while groups shouldn't be denied funds due to political stance, the committee needs to know the content that a speaker will be bringing.

"The organizations should get promotional materials approved through the Operations Review Committee in order to get the SGA stamp of approval, from now on," DeSanti said.

Surprised by the approved funding by the FAO Committee, specifically for training costs, SGA Comptroller Shane Chism, addressed the issue at an SGA meeting held Feb. 18.

Chism recommended that the senate pay more attention to funding.
Chism also said that SGA remains unbiased regarding which organizations and events they financially support.

According to the committees of the senate Web site, the FAO Committee is responsible for overseeing the Senate Working Fund, the Speakers Account and the Office Supplies Account. It allocates money from these accounts to registered student organizations and hears all allocations and bills for events, performances, etc. on campus.

Mark Harrington, executive director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Midwest, said the project has not received financial support from SGA or any campus organization.

"We haven't been given a penny," Harrington said.

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is a multimillion dollar organization that funds and organizes anti-abortion projects, including the Genocide Awareness Project.

"It is a privately funded organization with some very wealthy donors in the Orlando area and the state of Florida," Harrington said.

Students for Life president, Nicholas DiDonna, said that the project will be receiving the funds sometime this week after paperwork is filled out between Students for Life, the Genocide Awareness Project and the Activity & Service Fee Business Office.
Part of the funds that went to Students for Life helped finance a Pro-life Institute Night, held Feb. 12. Volunteers with the Genocide Awareness Project taught those who attended about how to discuss the issues with students.

Many Students for Life members helped volunteers of the project talk about the displays on campus on Wednesday and Thursday.

DiDonna said he felt the project benefited students.

"It raised awareness and got people talking," he said. "It gave the students an outlet to discuss pregnancy and abortion. What better way to start the discussion than putting it in front of them and confronting them with issue?"

DiDonna said some students felt offended and trapped by the images and felt the comparison of genocide and abortion was unwarranted.

"My response to that is that the project was only there for two days. It gave students those two days to put some time and consideration into their thoughts about abortion," he said.

Despite some negative reactions to the displays, DiDonna said he thought the event went well.

"A good portion of students on campus were open to it and glad," DiDonna said.
DiDonna said genocide is a crisis.

"Our intention was never to rub that crisis in students' faces, but to show the similarities between abortion and genocide and to get them to consider the issue," he said.