Thread by @aaronsibarium

NEW: Stanford is awarding five times as much money to a campus drag troupe as to an undergraduate veterans association. And it's awarding more money to the Muslim Student Union—$175,000—than every Christian student group combined.

We obtained the school's activities budget.🧵

The awards include a $50,000 grant to the Stanford Drag Troupe, which last year sponsored a performance by two drag queens, "Slut the Rock Johnson" and "ZZ Chic," as part of a "sex trivia" event titled, "Are You Smarter Than A Sexpert?"

That grant dwarfs the $10,000 earmarked for the Stanford Undergraduate Association of Veterans, the $14,472 earmarked for Stanford’s sole ballet group, the $27,104 earmarked for the Stanford Light Opera Company, and the $27,154 earmarked for the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.

Stanford Republican Club, meanwhile, receives just $7,549.25 under the new budget—less than the $10,000 earmarked for Furries at Stanford, a 15-person club that refers to its members as "Stanfurs."

Other clubs with a larger budget than the veterans group include the Stanford Video Game Association, which will receive $11,596.98, and the Society of Latinx Engineers, which will receive $17,175.

The numbers offer a window into the priorities of Stanford administrators, who determine which groups are eligible for funding based on how well they "complement the university’s mission," and of the students themselves, who determine how much money eligible groups receive.

3,000 studnets voted on nearly 150 grants, each of which passed by large margins. The grant to the Republican club sparked the most opposition from the students who voted, with nearly 25% voting against the funds. By contrast, only 16% voted against funding the drag group.

The money comes from a $240 activities fee that Stanford charges undergraduates each quarter. Clubs request their own budgets, which are then amended by the student government before being put to a campus-wide vote.

That is to say: students are paying out of pocket for this.

Administrators decide which clubs are eligible for funds. Stanford says it only recognizes clubs that "support the university's mission of teaching, education, and research," a provision that seems to include identity-based groups at the expense of more altruistic ones.

The school is unlikely to approve a "charitable organization designed to provide health education resources in Tanzania," a Stanford website states, since the intended beneficiaries are not Stanford students. "More successful examples" include "Black and Queer at Stanford."

Though a Stanford spokeswoman said that award allocations are driven by student requests, the student government has been known to deny funding outright to a sizable minority of applicants, while other clubs have received less money than they requested.

The drag troupe, for example, initially requested $70,000 in its application for university funds, $20,000 more than the amount approved by the student government, a source familiar with the matter said.

The application said the money would support up to 11 performances over the next year, including Stanford’s annual "Dragfest," which the application claims is "one of the most … highly attended free events on campus."

Tldr: Stanford is budgeting five times as much money for campus drag shows as for an undergraduate veterans group, and more money for the Muslim Student Union than for every Christian student group combined.

Read the full story here: freebeacon.com/campus/stanfor…