Conference organizers face funding challenges

A year ago the University branch of the nonprofit international organization ITASA won a bid to host the annual East Coast conference. Last weekend, the four-day conference attracted about 250 Taiwanese-Americans from across the country for various workshops and speeches on Taiwanese music, dance and politics, among other topics.

The four University students, members of the University group Taiwanese American Students Association, who led the conference expected University funding when they began planning the event during the summer.

“We approached the University for funding at the beginning of the fall semester expecting a good deal of support for showcasing Princeton to the community and for bringing these speakers to campus,” Shih, the chapter’s ITASA representative, said in an e-mail.

However, when conference leaders Mindy Lin ’11 and Jeff Cherng ’12 met with Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, it was made clear the conference did not qualify for University funding.

In past years, all host universities for the conference have provided financial support.

“The national organization [ITASA] was really surprised at the lack of support from the University,” Lin said.

According to Dunne, the conference was treated as a non-university event, because it was sponsored by a 501c3 nonprofit organization, ITASA.

“Sponsorship is one of those points where you’re channeled in different directions,” Dunne said. “If it’s sponsored by a nonprofit, then you have to get approval and work through [the Office of] Conference and Events Services.”

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Though the conference leaders never applied for money from the University Projects Board, which controls funding for student group events, projects board co-chair John Monagle ’12 said the event would not have been approved, because it occurred when classes were not in session.

According to Monagle, board-funded events must be free and accessible to the undergraduate community, because the board receives its money directly from student tuition.

Lin and Cherng, however, said Dunne told them that the reason they did not qualify for funding was because profits from the conference’s registrations would go to ITASA, not the TASA Princeton chapter.

“We were a little confused about the technicality about taking in registration fees from attendees — how we wouldn’t be able to do that as TASA — because plenty of student groups collect attendance fees for large events,” Cherng explained in an e-mail.

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Lin noted that the group “had the option to operate under the Princeton TASA name and not be able to collect registration, or operate under ITASA outside of Princeton and be able to collect registration fees.”

“It put us in a bind,” Cherng said. “If we didn’t collect registration fees, we wouldn’t be able to cover the costs.”

After realizing they would not receive University funding in the fall, the conference leaders raised $31,000 from alumni and corporations. But they are still over $5,000 short of paying back the event’s total cost of $36,000.

“Other members of the team have also started paying for several costs out of their own pocket, and we don’t expect to make any of it back,” Shih noted.

Cherng and Lin also noted that coordinating with the University to plan the conference was difficult, because they were not operating as a student group.

“My biggest disappointment is not related to the fact that we didn’t get funding from the University, but the attitude once we decided to treat the conference as an outside event,” Lin said. She added that the group was “treated almost like a group of people trying to cause trouble on campus when we were trying to help.”

According to Cherng, some University offices were more understanding, including the Office of Conference and Event Services, Media Services, TigerTransit and Dillon Gymnasium, but others had “a tone of opposition.”

Still, Shih expressed gratefulness for previous University funding for TASA events, such as Asian Night Market.

“As someone who’s benefited as an individual and as a part of TASA from University funding, it’s difficult for me to be extremely critical of the University’s financial decisions,” Shih said. However, he added that it was “a bit discouraging that we’re stuck with a $6,000 deficit that the University wasn’t willing to compromise on.”