Pre-health honor society granted funds by SGA
by ALISHA WASSENAAR
Staff Reporter

The House of Student Representatives granted Alpha Epsilon Delta, the pre-health honor society, $500 to attend a national convention in Orlando, Fla. beginning today and ending March 9, said Nick Harrel, president of AED.

Twenty members of AED are expected to attend the national biennial convention, which will focus on pre-health professions, said Harrel.

“The idea is that they will go to the conference representing TCU and by doing so will help the image of the TCU student body to the nation,” said John Billingsley, vice president of the Student Government Association.

Billingsley said AED is the fourth organization the House has given funds to this semester.

The House of Representatives agreed to allocate funds from the Conferences and Conventions fund to back AED’s trip. The fund has $5,300 to be used by TCU students, said George Peyton, treasurer for SGA.

The House delegates the funds to TCU students wanting to participate in conferences taking place in other parts of the nation which will benefit TCU as a whole when they return, Peyton said.

Other universities have similar funds that provide money for these types of activities.

The University of North Texas has a $5,000 fund called Eagle’s Nest, said Autumn Redmon, UNT assistant vice president for student affairs. Each student organization may ask for $350 per semester to attend various conventions and conferences, said Redmon. At Southern Methodist University, Jodi Warmbrod, SMU student body president, said there are four separate funds totaling $468,000 from which student organizations may request money to attend conferences.

Billingsley said the House disburses the money among student organizations for their direct benefit.

“That’s the entire purpose of SGA, to better serve the student body,” Billingsley said.

The AED national convention costs thousands of dollars and is subsidized by the House to help students by decreasing the amount they pay out of their pockets, said Phil Hartman, professor of biology.

Hartman, the AED faculty sponsor, said the convention is a tremendous opportunity for students to discuss medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine.

“The goal of the conference is to compare our program to other schools,” Harrel said. “We try to better our programs by looking at what other schools are doing.”

Alisha Wassenaar
a.a.wassenaar@student.tcu.edu

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