For two years, the UW Alumni Association (UWAA) has offered a grant for Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) to hold a variety of events at the UW, including the First Nations Pow Wow, the Delta Gamma Anchor Splash and the Indian Student Association Bhangra Bash.

At the beginning of this year, however, the UWAA decided to take the grant out and change it with the hope of better serving students.

“We felt attendees didn’t [get to] know UWAA through the events and that we didn’t get to know them … so we took out the program out for the year to redesign it,” Courtney Acitelli, alumni relations manager at the UWAA, said.

The Student Activities Office (SAO) was initially unaware the grant was pulled.

“Our office didn’t find out until Mona Daniels, president of First Nations, a group I advise, told us after she tried to contact UWAA,” Christina Coop, an advisor at the SAO, said.

Coop also said all groups that come to the SAO are told about the grant and knew about it.

Daniels said she first found out about the grant as the director of the ASUW American Indian Student Commission (AISC).

“The grant shows [UW Alumni] support for programming they cared about when they were students at the UW … It also allows for a deeper connection to current students,” she said.

A funding source for scholarships and some RSO grants is UWAA clubs, Acitelli said.

“Clubs … represent special interest groups and can raise/distribute money as they see fit,” Acitelli said. “The Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) is one group that consistently provides a RSO grant.”

The UWAA has certain expectations of grant applicants.

“To receive the grant, a student group needed to score in four categories, which were weighted equally” said Acitelli, “They were: Reach — how many students were being reached through the activity? Mission — did it match that of the UWAA and UW? Tradition — how long had this event been done? And alumni — Did it provide an opportunity for students and alumni to interact.”

She added that the grants could not be used to pay for wages or used to gain a profit.

Maria Guillen, president of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), said she had never heard of the scholarship.

“I think I would have brought it up to our group if I had known … Visibility is important,” she said. “I think putting the application in places where students gather, like at Mary Gates, the HUB and the Ethnic Cultural Center, would be good.”

In the past, the grant was promoted by students.

“We used to have a student marketing team which would help us promote our activities and program; now we have incorporated it into the student programming group, which also includes two UWAA staff members,” said Acitelli. “We will probably keep the criteria [for the grant] the same, though we want to add opportunities for students to connect with alumni, so we may require that groups who receive the grant volunteer with UWAA, through focus groups or other activities.”

The removal of the grant is only temporary and the UWAA looks forward to reinstating it.

“We are excited to be bringing back the RSO Grant and should have it back up by fall quarter.” Acitelli said.

Reach reporter Chris Paredes at news@thedaily.washington.edu.