Financial Officer: Omar Shakir (oshakir@stanford.edu)
Amount Approved: $13,925.78
Full Budget

What is the mission and purpose of your student group?

MSAN is a non-religious, cultural student organization dedicated to:

1. Promoting awareness and fostering dialogue about issues that
pertain to Muslims domestically and globally

2. Increasing the Stanford community's understanding of the
Islamic faith and culture

Our primary goal is to promote awareness on issues affecting
Muslims and the Muslim world. In today's world, marked by a
growing rift between 'the West' and 'the Muslim World,' MSAN's
role on campus is to promote cross-cultural dialogue. MSAN is
unique in that it is the only student organization striving to
shed light on common misunderstandings about crucial topics such
as women in Islam, jihad, civil rights for Muslims in America,
and crises in Muslim nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia,
Palestine, and Sudan.

Our second objective is to help Stanford students understand the
foundations of the Islamic faith, and also celebrate Islamic
culture and enhance cross-cultural understanding at Stanford.
Islam is often a misunderstood faith, as we aim to help students
and faculty gain a better understanding of Islam, through talks
given by Islamic scholars, dorm talks facilitated by Muslim
students around campus, multi-faith panels, and dinners in
celebration of Islamic traditions such as Ramadan and Eid.

Muslims live in every corner of the world -- from Egypt to
Tanzania to India to Indonesia -- and their diversity manifests
itself in their dress, art, cuisine and language. We hope to
share and celebrate this diversity.

Why are you requesting Special Fees?

The Muslim Student Awareness Network is, by definition, an
awareness organization and thus serves only one community- the
community of Stanford undergraduate students.  Every cent MSAN
receives goes directly back to Stanford students in the form of
events that are open to the entire Stanford community.  Because
MSAN's focus is to promote awareness and understanding about
Islam, all its programs are geared towards serving the largest
possible audience, rather than a certain homogenous segment of
the student population.

The positive response MSAN has received every year since its
founding has encouraged the organization to broaden its horizons
and deepen its programming.  Our membership core greatly expanded
this past year, which has allowed us to increase our visibility
on campus and plan even more events. And the generous turnout at
our events, particularly our annual Islam Awareness Week, has
demanded greater resourcefulness from the organization. Two years
ago, MSAN was successful in its bid to gain special fees, which
provided the organization with the means to improve and increase
its programming for the past two year. Because special fees is a
stable funding source, the organization has been able to better
plan and execute events over the course of the past two years.
Over the past 8 years, MSAN has enriched this school by
organizing programming that has brought the Stanford community
together in a spirit of fun and learning and we hope to continue
to do the same next year!

What are the three largest line item requests in your budget and why?

Honoraria: This line item will be used to bring these high
profile and highly sought speakers to Stanford. Every year, we
carefully select a line-up of speakers and events that will
complement one another and be able to address the major concerns
facing Muslims and/or the Muslim world.  Current events,
including the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, the
Palestine-Israel conflict, and the soaring numbers of hate crimes
against Muslims in America compel us to address such pertinent
themes as US-Muslim world relations, Women in Islam, and the
Relationship of the Abrahamic Faiths.  Previous speakers MSAN has
brought to campus include: Cat Stevens, Professor Asma Barlas
(author of the book Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the
Qu'ran), Hans von Sponeck (former secretary general of the U.N.),
renowned Muslim Scholar Hamza Yousef, Mustafa Barghouti (former
candidate for president of Palestine and receipt of 20% of the
vote in recent elections), civil rights activist Mahdi Bray, and
Frances Deng (former foreign minister of Sudan).

Refreshments. The "Refreshments" line item will only be used
for dinner events open to the entire Stanford community. Funds
will go toward inviting the Stanford community to an open dinner
during the month of Ramadan. The event will showcase food from
various parts of the Muslim world. This event aims at dispelling
the stereotype of a monolithic Muslim culture.  Furthermore,
Ramadan is a major Muslim holiday, and a particularly festive
time of the year for one-sixth of the world's population. 
Nevertheless, images of it as being a stoic and solemn period
persist.  This feast will allow us to share some of that
festivity with the Stanford community in a way unique to our
cultures. In the past, this has been a very well-attended event,
with about 200 attendees. We also plan to use these funds for an
open dinner to celebrate the Muslim Holiday of Eid, and for a
Spring Quarter Muslim Cultural Celebration Extravaganza.

Travel Fares. The "Travel Fares" line item will be used to
cover the expense of travel for the speakers we hope to bring to
campus this coming year.

We encourage you to take a look at our budget itemization.

If you applied for Special Fees last year, is there an increase in the
amount you're seeking this year?  If so, why?

MSAN has slightly increased its budget for next year due to the
incredible growth the organization has undertaken in the past
year. Its membership core has tripled, growing from a group of 15
that met over brunch at Wilbur to a group of 45 that meets weekly
in the Sequoia Room of Tressider Union.  This increase has
allowed MSAN to triple the number of events it has held this year
in relation to last.  MSAN also underwent a massive
organizational re-haul this summer and has been restructured to
allow for it to deal with a much wider variety of issues.  Its
event attendance has also skyrocketed this past year, increasing
its costs.

However, MSAN's growth has been accompanied by a more efficient
allocation and use of resources. In spite of the fact that MSAN's
officer core and number of events tripled this past year, MSAN is
only requesting a 40% increase in total budget.  Our total annual
budget stands at $32000, yet we only request $13000 from
students, meaning that the majority of our budget comes from
outside funding sources, something one will not find with many
other Stanford organizations.