The Student Judiciary ruled Monday to uphold a Finance Committee decision denying travel funding to a law student organization.
On Oct. 7 the Asian-Pacific American Law Students Association/South Asian Law Students Association appeared before the Finance Committee to apply for a $1,333 travel grant to attend the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Conference.
The Finance Committee is tasked with allocating different grants to registered student organizations. APALSA/SALSA requested the travel grant to pay for registration, travel and lodging costs.
The committee unanimously voted to deny the request. At the Thursday appeal, Finance Committee Chair Mary Prunty said the conference did not fulfill the requirement of the trip serving a primarily educational purpose.
According to a brief filed by the Student Judiciary, the application made many references the networking aspect of the trip and the organization’s representatives were unable to specify the educational component.
In response to a claim by APALSA/SALSA that the Finance Committee had previously awarded travel grants to law organizations for similar trips, the brief said the organization did not have significant evidence to establish that there were inconsistencies in how the committee treated different organizations.
