The Student Government Association agreed to allocate funds to Frames Per Second (FPS) and met with the provost and vice president of academic affairs during its meeting last Friday.
Alexandra Socarides attended the meeting to discuss EmersonTogether’s partnership with SGA.
Socarides began working at Emerson in July. As provost, she works with and oversees faculty across departments and all academic programs. She plans to support faculty and explore academic infrastructure, which outlines students’ current wants and needs as well as what they will need five to 10 years from now. It focuses on student majors, career pathways, and outcomes.
Socarides is also on the EmersonTogether coordination team. EmersonTogether is a community-building initiative the college launched in August in response to continued campus tension from last spring. The committee is open to partnering with SGA.
As fall election applications are underway, Internal Affairs Executive President Nandan Nair said SGA is introducing a new constitution. The current constitution acts as a “vague guiding document,” Nair said.
“We shouldn’t really be amending the constitution,” he added. “It is a lot easier to approve bylaws than it is the constitution.”
In regards to allocating money into funds, SGA discussed the Student Impact Fund and the Appeals Fund.
The Student Impact Fund has nearly $1.5 million as a result of the college spending less since the pandemic and Emerson organizations giving back to SGA through the Give-Back Fund, where they can return unspent money from their budgets to SGA at the end of each semester. During the meeting, the committee for the Student Impact Fund adopted bylaws that will assist SGA in creating opportunities for the Emerson community. Bylaws are flexible and adapt to SGA and Emerson community needs.
The appeals fund will get smaller by 50% each year until SGA moves toward better-planned budgets. It currently allocates funds to organizations who encounter unforeseen need for additional funds, in between semesters.
FPS, the oldest film organization at Emerson, presented the organization’s distribution program, Premiere, to SGA during the meeting, and requested funds to support it. The program prioritizes helping students who are passionate about filming and want their work to be distributed publicly, said Deputy Distribution Manager Lorenzo Halsey Solomon.
All Emerson students will be able to join this program if approved.
“Without an important distributor, it is very hard to get a good result,” Halsey Solomon said. “You can’t effectively make films without production and distribution.”
“With programs being cut at Emerson, students don’t have money to maintain distribution on their own,” he added.
Halsey Solomon explained how the funds would be broken down. For movies, the cost is $350 to be distributed on a smaller scale. For a guaranteed chance at being selected, the cost is $800 to be distributed at major film festivals. As a result, Emerson students also have a chance to obtain licensing deals.
Monetary prizes and sales are divided 70% to FPS and 30% to Premiere. This is the only way that the program makes money. Halsey Solomon explained that time, money, and effort are put into productions, although they cannot all be distributed.
“This deal would give more exposure, experience, and possible connections and deals to be broadcasted, ” said Halsey Solomon. He believes that in time, the program will be able to pay for itself. While there is no guarantee, he said that he believes the program is better than the current situation.
Several SGA members debated over allocating the requested funds, raising concerns over the project’s potential for success and timeliness.
This is the first U.S. school to have this kind of contract deal, said Halsey Solomon. One school attempted to do the program a few years ago, but the school’s bureaucracy took too long to make decisions, he added.
In a roll call vote, the allocation to FPS was approved. At the end of the meeting, SGA held an open forum and addressed students who are running for fall elections, saying posters must be approved by Student Engagement & Leadership.
