The Financial Advisory Board, in a rare decision, denied part of one of the first appeal requests of the year on Thursday from Emerson’s Esports team.

The request, which totaled $2,111.19, was brought to FAB by team president Andrew Geiger and vice president and treasurer Brian Hutnicki, who explained that the appeal was intended to send Hutnicki and the team’s advisor, Joshua Hamlin, to the Emerson-Blanquerna Global Summit at Blanquerna University in Barcelona, Spain. 

However, Executive Treasurer Abigail Semple, along with the rest of FAB, decided that they could not grant the team’s full appeal.

“For food and for transportation, because they didn’t have ideally sourced quotes we didn’t feel it necessary to allocate that money,” Semple said in an interview following the meeting. “Especially since they do have money in their budget for conferences.” 

Instead, the team was allocated $1,311.19 for air travel and their hotel stay.

The appeals process is intended to grant money to student organizations for events and trips that did not make it into their Annual Budget Request.

In an interview with The Beacon following Thursday’s meeting, Semple explained that while the esports team had not been granted the full amount requested, FAB would always be open to appeals from student organizations.

“It’s always important to allow for student organizations to grow and change throughout the year,” she said. “It’s really great when our students orgs get opportunities outside of what they originally anticipated. That’s how we grow and invest in our college.”

SGA’s appeals account held $245,770 as of last Tuesday, 

Also on Thursday, FAB fully approved another appeals request from the Mercutio Troupe, a theater-performance group.

Mercutio’s artistic director, Samantha Lane, who represented the organization at Thursday’s meeting, told the board that the Mercutio Troupe typically puts on three productions each semester. She said the appeal, which totaled $2,166, would be used for a fourth production: a film directed by group member James Curry.

“We have a lot of people working on this,” Lane said. “I don’t have a ton of experience with film, but what I’m learning is that it takes a village. There are a lot of people from a lot of different majors working on this outside of Mercutio and within Mercutio, which is honestly really exciting for us.”