Candidate Profile

Eleanor Allen

(She/Her)

During 2023 I was treasurer of Illini Swim Club, and I often interacted with undergraduate SORF board members as well as the SOFC. I realized the importance of the SORF through how much it allows RSOs to accomplish with additional supportive funding, but particularly how dependent certain RSOs are on this funding. For certain organizations that do not have sponsorships from companies if they are not technical project oriented, are unaffiliated with departments and national organizations, and may not receive alumni donations, it can be difficult to procure funding when they want to keep costs low to students to remain an accessible, inclusive student organization. These types of RSOs, such as club sports and many common interest and identity based student organizations, offer a refuge outside of academics and are essential to students’ wellbeing. I spent much of the past year figuring out how to apply for funding as it can be a complicated process and when I could not connect ISC’s off campus PNC account to my student account since I had a job through the university, I had to figure out how set our organization up as a vendor so that we could be reimbursed for our swim meets and pool time payments. So many of these processes were so time consuming to figure out, and I want to be a resource to treasurers of all student organizations who know the steps to take from their perspective, as well as help Illinois support as many organizations as possible and make many of the forms and requirements more efficient and understandable. My platform is just that-maximizing the number of student organizations we can support and utilizing our allotted financial resources from the university most effectively, but first and foremost making the process of applying for funding and receiving funding more streamlined and comprehensive for students.