The Associated Students Inc. Board of Control approved on Tuesday over $5,000 to the International Student Association for its upcoming Multicultural Dinner Show, Pumpkin Carving and Thanksgiving Dinner.
ISA President Abhimanyu Narwal informed the board about how its Multicultural Dinner Show had been an annual tradition for the past five decades of the organization’s existence and had helped enrich students with appreciation of different cultures through food and entertainment.
There were some concerns voiced by Senator Kelsey Reyes regarding the requested grant amount, until Narwal informed the board members that the unusual amount was due to ISA losing supplies from last year. The storage complex that was housing supplies from previous Multicultural Dinners threw them out, Narwal said.
Senator Reyes asked ISA President Narwal where the International Student Association planned to advertise its events. After being told that the ISA focused on advertising around the International Education Office, Senator Reyes encouraged the group to consider advertising in the International House building Hall as well.
For the past few years, ISA has been providing Thanksgiving Dinner for students. The cost of this event is high; ASI Treasurer Kalien Clark made a point of noting that ISA was making dinner for several hundred students at about $5 a plate.
On another matter, Clark said that the minimum GPA required for the study abroad scholarship that is being developed with the Center for International Education should be raised to 2.75 over the current 2.5 GPA proposal.
However, ASI Vice President Nayiri Baghdassarian said Clark’s proposal by would be unfair for science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors who had a harder course load than other majors.
Clark said she was concerned about whether students would be confused by the name of the study abroad scholarship, tentatively called the “ASI global citizen study abroad scholarship.” The CIE will be reached about renaming the scholarship, she said.