From Mali to Pocatello

The citizens of Mali are no strangers to being caught between two powerful forces. Not only is the country in a civil war but now two student organizations at Idaho State University are at odds over a proposal to build a school there.
The Associated Students of ISU (ASISU) approved a $10,000 request for funding made by the Rotaract Club in April and granted the club a spending deadline of Dec. 31, 2012. The club planned to use the money to build a school in Tabakoro (also called nT’Abakoto), Mali, a country in Africa.
The town, located in the south of Mali, has been less affected by the country’s current conflict than towns in the north, where much of the fighting has been centered.
61percent of Mali youth are illiterate, according to UNICEF.
Local Rotary groups offered to match funds raised by the Rotaract Club. Brandon Comish, then-secretary of the Rotaract Club, said if the club got the $10,000 from ASISU, Rotary clubs would provide an additional $30,000 toward the Mali school’s construction.
On Jan. 16, ASISU told the club it had missed its chance to use the money.
The contingency fund, created from student enrollment fees, is used to aid clubs on campus with various needs. For example, one recent expenditure was new gear for the women’s rugby club.
The major bone of contention between the two organizations seems to be time. ASISU members feel they have granted the Rotaract Club more than enough time to use the money. Rotaract Club says it needs just a little more time to put the money to use.
When a club requests money from ASISU, it is typically granted 30 days to spend the money. Rotaract Club planned to build the school over summer or winter break, depending on their fundraising progress. In its funding application, the club requested a spending deadline of Dec. 31, 2012. The timeline was approved.
Comish said he was approached by Lowell Richards, ASISU general manager and assistant vice president for student affairs, a month later and told the club would not receive the funding.
Richards described the conversation differently, saying he talked with Comish in July about the necessary steps the club would need to take to secure the funding.
“There were concerns with the details of the project and that I think it deserves more discussion on understanding what the details are and how things were going to be handled,” Richards said. “That was the discussion, not that things weren’t going to go through. That’s completely up to ASISU. That’s their decision to make.”
Comish, who described his current Rotaract Club position as Rotary-Rotaract liaison, said that conversation occurred at the end of last spring semester. He said Richards and ASISU were to blame for the club not traveling to Mali to build the school.
ASISU president Matt Bloxham countered, saying the Rotaract Club was simply asked to work with the purchasing office to ensure state laws were being followed and the club was staying accountable for the spending.
“It would be sort of difficult to go if they were still holding onto the money,” said Comish.
“We wanted to go last summer but that was obviously put on hold by the conversation with Lowell Richards.”
Bloxham and Richards denied saying the funding would not be available to Rotaract. They both said their conversations with Comish were meant to convey a need to provide detailed reports in order to follow university guidelines and state laws.
“I know that there were issues” with concerns over how the money would be spent, said Bloxham. “We asked for a basic business plan. It was more of a logistics issue.”
By Dec. 31, the money had not been spent.
“There was still no clear spending plan,” said Bloxham. “So it expired.”
Members of the ASISU finance committee said the Rotaract Club missed its deadline and failed to file the necessary paperwork to be granted an extension.
“That’s how they will get out of it,” was Comish’s response. “All they would have had to do is give us more time.”
ASISU finance officer Aaron McCabe said the club had already been granted an extended deadline, six months longer than is typical. When the deadline approached, he said ASISU acted in a way consistent with their bylaws.
“It’s our system,” said McCabe. “ If they don’t use it by that day, we take the money back. That happens with every contingency fund request.”
McCabe said the finance committee held a special meeting Dec. 12 to outline the steps Rotaract would need to take to be granted an extension.
The documents required by ASISU’s finance committee were “purchasing documents to prove what they were buying and where it was from; their purchasing plan; the number of students going; their fundraising so far; and the matched funding documents from Rotary,” according to Kelli Seeliger, finance committee chair. “We wanted to see that it actually would be matched.”
Seeliger said the club had until 5 p.m. on Jan. 16 to submit the paperwork.
Comish said one of the reasons his club requested the extension was because the members needed more time to gather the necessary paperwork to show how the money would be spent. However, the finance committee did not feel comfortable recommending an extension to the ASISU senate without all the paperwork they requested a month prior.
At the Jan. 16 meeting, all but one ASISU senator voted against granting the extension. McCabe said he emailed Rotaract Club president Danielle Swenson to let her know the club could reapply for funding this fall.
Swenson could not be reached for comment.
In the spring of 2012, ASISU approved a bill, which “cleaned up” the language of contingency fund spending, according to Senator Bobby Miklos. The bill lowered the maximum amount of money a club could request to $5,000.
The fate of the Mali school-building project is unclear. Comish said his own non-profit organization, Hope for a Better World, will continue to pursue the school’s construction. After all, it was Hope for a Better World that first came up with the idea of building the African school.
Comish said if the Rotaract Club is unable to build the school this summer due to fundraising or travel safety concerns, the money raised will likely be donated to The Mali Rising Foundation. The club will pursue other service projects next semester.