Marquette SOA protesters make trip despite funding denial

By PATRICK O'NEILL

The Marquette University Student Government denied a funding request from a student group that organizes an annual trip from Milwaukee to Columbus, Ga., each November where they join thousands of other Jesuit college and high school students for the Ignatian Family Teach-In.

The teach-in is part of the protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formally called the School of the Americas or SOA).

An error in the student group's application resulted in the student government cutting a $4,000 appropriation that was meant to help defray the trip's expense.

According to Pat Kennelly, a Marquette senior who heads the school's SOA planning committee, another student's oversight in "insufficiently" filling out the application resulted in the funds being denied after several years of funds being allocated for the trip.

Kennelly said that renting a bus for the 18-hour trip to Columbus, Ga., and providing motel space for 46 college students costs about $175 per student, a fee that is reduced to $75 though fundraising efforts and the student government allocation.

The funding denial led to "a lot of outrage" on the campus, Kennelly said, but an appeal to the student government was still denied. Kennelly made the trip to Columbus a year ago when a record 19,000 people attended, more than 3,000 of them students from Jesuit institutions. He said the SOA event has had a profound impact on the larger Jesuit community. Students return and use the experience "to educate the campus community."

Assistant director of University Ministry, Gerry Fischer said that while the student government decision was not politically motivated, the student legislators failed to appreciate the importance of the trip to the greater Marquette community.

"They need to know this is not a little thing," Fischer said. "It's a big deal. This was Marquette's event. It wasn't only a student event."

Eric Lombardi, student government reporter for the campus newspaper, The Marquette Tribune, said the student government wanted to support the trip, but followed the letter of the law in denying the application. Lombardi said the student government might review its application procedures as a result of the backlash created by the rejection.

Kennelly and Fischer said the story had a happy ending as several individuals, Marquette's Jesuit community and director of University Ministry Jeusit Fr. Edward Mathie stepped forward with additional funds to make up the shortfall.

"Great things have happened," Fischer said. "People have stepped forward to help us."

[Patrick O'Neill is a freelance religion journalist living in Garner, N.C.]