This week ASWSU began work on the new rules under which some student groups will receive the lifeblood of their organization: funding.

Service & Activities (S&A) fees are allocated by a committee of university administrators, student leaders and advisers for registered student organizations (RSOs). During deliberations last April, the S&A committee decided KUGR, LandEscapes, Cable 8, WSU Performing Arts and Allegro would petition the ASWSU Senate for funding rather than the S&A committee directly.

Under the new system, the five RSOs will be integrated into the ASWSU budget process.

ASWSU Vice President LaKecia Farmer said she began talks on Tuesday with the ASWSU Senate about developing new bylaws to accommodate the RSOs. The bylaws are predicted to be established by October.

Cable 8 President Herman Meier said he hopes to influence the new bylaws in order to secure his station’s editorial autonomy.

“What we understand now might not be what they understand,” Meier said, “so we need to make sure that whatever is written is explicitly written.”

Meier said he hopes to protect Cable 8’s right to speak freely regarding ASWSU and other groups within the university without receiving punishment in the form of withheld funds.

“The concern isn’t for this year, or even next year,” he said. “It’s in a couple years, when literally every single person is removed and the full cycle of students has come through.”

ASWSU President Jared Powell said he wants to include the RSOs in conversations while the bylaws are in development.

“We don’t ever want to be controlling content,” Powell said.

Members of last year’s S&A committee cited an increase in efficiency as their main reason for changing the allocation process.

“It might actually make things less complicated,” said Ana Schmidt, the editor-in-chief of LandEscapes.

These kinds of changes aren’t new to the literary journal as its budget was merged last year with that of the English department’s Visiting Writer Series, Schmidt said.

“We already have three days from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. of budget hearings and then one day from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. of deliberations,” Powell said. “It’s a pretty lengthy process.”

Although the process will be new for the RSOs, Powell said the ASWSU Senate has experience presenting to the committee on behalf of others.

“We have 12 committees under us that receive funding from S&A,” Powell said, “so instead of each of these committees going to S&A and asking, they come to our ASWSU Senate budget council.”

Tesia Lingenfelter, who was KUGR’s program director during the 2013-14 school year, said the direct access to the S&A committee was absolutely necessary last spring when the station needed $20,000 to replace broken equipment.

Lingenfelter said without KUGR’s ability to plead its own case, she doubts the station’s funding would have been approved.

“With ASWSU doing our bidding for us, I’m not saying they won’t be passionate, but they won’t be one of our DJs, knowing the struggle of broken equipment,” she said.

“We’re worried that we are going to lose that voice,” added Matt Zimmer, KUGR’s general manager. “You can only portray so much when you are going through different channels. It’s almost like playing telephone.”

Powell said normally the ASWSU Senate holds budget hearings in February, while the S&A committee holds budget hearings in March. Meier said Cable 8 will need to adjust to presenting earlier in the year.

“When we present to ASWSU, they’re going to have to be more ballpark figures,” Meier said. “We’ll have to be more conscientious of what we propose (and) need to stick to.”

Powell said his priority is to keep the process transparent and open.

“We don’t want to throw anyone into anything they have reservations about,” Powell said.