Nor Osborne, Staff Writer–

A Solidarity Iftar Dinner had been planned to happen on March 30, an event created in collaboration between the student organizations University Programming Council (UPC) and Muslim Student Association (MSA).  

Iftar is the meal that breaks the daily fast that Muslims practice during the month of Ramadan. MSA and UPC’s Iftar celebration aimed to bring together both Muslim and non-Muslim students, providing a space to learn about Ramadan while having meaningful conversations and trying traditional cuisine. 

However, the event planning came to a halt due to a decision made by the Denison Campus Governance Association (DCGA) that caused confusion and outrage among students. 

DCGA consists of elected student representatives. The financial committee within DCGA reviews the budget requests for funding and reallocations from all student organizations. UPC requested to reallocate $3,500 of its yearly budget, moving money originally allotted for games for a Casino Night event towards food for the Solidarity Iftar Dinner. 

The financial committee rejected the request for reallocation on the grounds of the event being “radically different from the purpose of the original event and for a purpose different from UPC’s mission as an organization.”

Alice Tran ‘24, the president of UPC, explained UPC’s request for reallocation. “We originally received funding from DCGA for a multitude of events, but later cut down the resources we received for events. Due to this decrease in funding, we wouldn’t have enough to make the Casino Night event possible. We decided we wanted to reallocate the money we did have for Casino Night to other events such as Iftar based on our priorities as an organization and student interest,” said Tran.  

However, according to Tran, when DCGA refused to allow UPC to redistribute their budget, the event was impacted greatly. 

“We had submitted our request prior to spring break, but didn’t receive the rejection until the week before the event. We had to scramble to figure out a new plan and a new way to fund the food for the event. We’re anticipating around 200 people at the event, which is such a large amount of food to try to fund on such a short notice,” Tran said. 

The funds available weren’t the only component affected by this decision. On March 26th, UPC published a response to DCGA’s rejection in The Bullsheet, a daily student publication, catching the attention of many Denisonians. In their response letter, UPC addressed DCGA’s reasoning, criticizing the implications of the language used in their rejection as well as the effect it would have on them. UPC argued that DCGA’s assumptions about the event would feed into the exclusion of Cross Cultural Community (C3) organizations, lessening the financial power and therefore impact C3 organizations and their collaborators can have on campus. Ultimately, contributing to biased treatment of certain cultures over others. 

Tran stated, “Their rejection claimed that this would not be a general event and wasn’t what UPC is expected to throw. As UPC, we don’t think that is true at all. We have supported many cultural events before. What changed with this event? If this perception continues, it will disrupt our collaboration with other student organizations we haven’t had the chance to work with before. It will create the assumption that we won’t represent these groups, which is not true at all.” 

Brennan Kelley ‘26, the head of the financial committee, viewed the situation differently. “We largely look for an explanation from the organization to explain why they are putting on the event and the purpose of the money. There was no argument in the request so the committee didn’t understand how money for a game night was in the same spirit as money for a religious event. MSA also received $7,414 for celebrations during the month of Ramadan, so an additional $3,500 seemed unnecessary,” he said. 

The DCGA finance committee met again following UPC’s letter of concern and overturned their initial decision, allowing the reallocation to occur. The Solidarity Iftar Dinner occurred on March 30th according to plan. 

“UPC explained that it was a larger event to bring the community together, and  therefore Casino Night and Iftar were in the same spirit. Looking back, this was more clear and aligned more with UPC’s mission towards diverse events, so the committee decided to overturn it,” Kelley said. 

Some students are continuing to express concern at the principle of the situation. 

“Reallocations have been requested in the past of a similar nature, but they have not been rejected. And it was just rejected, there was no questioning or asking to provide more information,” said Ali Imran ‘24 about the social impact of the matter. “It felt very abrupt, just three lines of text and it was just canceled, even though the DCGA rules state that if the finance committee needs more information they should reach out before coming to a conclusion. That did not happen.

“It was really important to have this event be visible and have an open invite to the entire community, especially given the startling Islamophobia that has been present in the US in the past few months. UPC collaborates with the C3 organizations to throw events frequently, as they should. But when the collaboration was planned to occur in support of fasting students it was ‘radically different’? The implications of the language used to deny the request and the implications of denying the request in general are troubling. A very defensive position was taken instead of the communicative and transparent response that should’ve happened,” Imran said. 

UPC has requested an official response from DCGA. As of March 30th, a response has not been received.