Campus-wide interest has multiplied suddenly over the idea of the addition of a rock wall to Yates Field House after the Georgetown University Student Association Funding Board denied funding to Outdoor Education for the project.
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the GUSA Funding Board, which meets annually, met to review the budget proposals of student groups, at which time representatives of OutdoorEd presented a request for funding to put a bouldering wall in Yates and to lower the costs of their trips. The board decided not to allocate any funds to OutdoorEd.
According to GUSA Senator, Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair, and GUSA Funding Board Chair, Matt Wagner (SFS ’11), the funding board only allocates funds to student groups with constitutions and that are ultimately controlled by students, not university faculty, which criteria are not met by OutdoorEd. This policy exists so that “student dollars are guaranteed to go back safely and reliably to student organizations,” Wagner said.
While OutdoorEd members agree that this is a valid reason to deny the group money to subsidize their trips, they do not believe that the board should have rejected funding the rock wall since it is not specifically just for OutoorEd members and participants.
“The request for a rock wall was on behalf of all students and should have been granted for that reason,” Laurel Cepero (SFS ’11), OutdoorEd Manager, said.
According to Wagner, this year the GUSA Funding Board, which consists of seven GUSA senators and six representatives of various student advisory boards, makes all of its decisions unanimously, and reviewed budget requests from a number of student organizations on Wednesday night. The board fully funded all requests except that of OutdoorEd, which it rejected entirely.
“The question became – do we allocate money to Outdoor Education or not? We made that decision before even considering what they had applied to do with the money [since they were not eligible],” Wagner said.
embers of OutdoorEd believe that the addition of a bouldering wall in the near future would be very beneficial to students, and the 427 members of the Facebook group “What Rocks? Let’s Get a Climbing Wall in Yates!” which was created Feb. 12 by OutdoorEd leaders, support its creation. OutdoorEd members, according to Greenwald, created this group to show that other students than those in OutdoorEd have an interest in the rock climbing wall being built.
Cepero believes that a rock wall in Yates would be a great way for students to exercise, learn new skills and have fun. Cepero added that the closest climbing gym is 45 minutes away from Georgetown and costs about $20 for every trip.
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