Blake Cochran, president of SVN, presented to SFAC Friday afternoon in the SGA Senate Chamber and asked on behalf of the organization for a one-time request of $9,540 to purchase a photo booth, $11,709.82 for a mobile production and streaming kit and $11,787.20 to fund a film festival. | Brittaney Penney / The Cougar.
The student media organizations — The Cougar, Student Video Network and Coog Radio — presented to the Student Fees Advisory Committee Friday.
On behalf of The Cougar, Editor in Chief Glissette Santana requested a $12,720 one-time request of the Student Fees Advisory Committee this Friday, as well as a total of $7,235 in base augmentation funds.
Santana said that the one-time request would go towards supplementing expenses associated with Cooglife events hosted by the Center for Student Media.
“Cooglife was created for two reasons: to connect with students who don’t usually read a print newspaper, and to try and create opportunities for more buzz on campus about student media,” she said.
In addition to providing free food and giveaways at events, Santana cited additional benefits of funding Cooglife events in her presentation.
“(Cooglife events have) created an opportunity to collaborate more with SVN and Coog Radio in a way that we’ve never had to before. And because of this, we’re growing stronger as a center,” Santana said. “What we’re envisioning moving forward is doing more events and raising the bar on them.”
As for the $7,235 base budget augmentation, Santana said it would be allocated to essential marketing for The Cougar and providing permanent funding for the community manager position.
“The reason why marketing and the community manager position are so essential to The Cougar is because of the sheer volume of work that we do,” Santana said. “It allows for our brand to be seen around campus, and I can tell you that the Cooglife events, and the Social Media Wednesdays and Thursdays, would not be possible without the community manager position at the helm.”
Student Video Network continued the day of student media presentations by asking for a one-time request of $9,540 to purchase a photo booth, $11,709.82 for a mobile production and streaming kit and $11,787.20 to fund a film festival.
The photo booth would be available for rental to student organizations and would include staff as well, SVN President Blake Cochran said.
“In the past year CSI has rented a photo booth six times, providing photo novelties,” SVN adviser Paul Schneider said. “Based on raw cost of those materials and the rental, they have been paying an average of about $2,600 to $2,700 per booth rental. We’re looking at bring that down somewhere between $1,500 and $1,700. For a booth that just prints out photos, our cost would be about $400 for an organization.”
Cochran said SVN would look to use the streaming kit for both SVN live coverage of events and as another service for UH organizations.
The film festival would be open to the Houston community, not just the UH campus and would feature movies and other activities.
Coog Radio finished the afternoon by asking for a base augmentation of $10,158 for marketing purposes, as well as $28,290 as one-time request to fund a spring concert.
Upon SFAC member Simon Bott’s request, Coog Radio Station Director Justin Lyles explained the difference between Coog Radio’s concert versus those of other student organizations.
“SPB’s main aim in their concerts is (to) bring in national acts,” Lyles said. “We would like Coog Radio’s concerts to be associated with local acts. We want our headliner to be a well-known local act, such as The Suffers. We want to showcase local music. We want to feature Houston bands.”
SFAC presentations will continue Monday with the Blaffer Gallery, the Marching Band, the Speech and Debate Program and Campus Recreation.
