KENT, Ohio — Students who allocate grants for activities on campus have denied funding to the group that annually commemorates the 1970 shootings at Kent State University.

        The May 4th Task Force will have to make its plans without about $18,000 it had expected.

        Kelley Gorbett, 20, co-chair of the May 4th Task Force, said the commemoration, including the candlelight vigil that will begin on May 3, will go on despite the lack of funding.

        Task force members hope alumni will make contributions, as they have in past years, to help pay expenses. Additionally, the task force is talking with prospective speakers, asking them to accept reduced fees.

        The task force will receive $7,500 from Kent's All Campus Programming Board for a concert related to the May 4 remembrance.

        For at least 20 years, the task force has annually received money from student fees to commemorate the anniversary of the day four students were killed and nine others were wounded when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire during a protest against the Vietnam War.

        Ms. Gorbett said Thursday that some members of the student senate allocations committee do not want to remember the past. Ms. Gorbett said one member of the allocations board “doesn't like the fact that wherever he goes, people say, "Kent State, oh, that's where those kids got shot.'”

        Seven of the eight allocations committee members turned the task force down.

        Kent State students pay $18 a semester toward a student activity fee. The money is pooled to pay for programs sponsored by student groups. When the May 4th Task Force came before the allocations committee for funding this week, only $15,900 had not been allocated. The group was seeking approximately $18,000, but task force members said they would have been happy with less.

        Mike Chadsey, 21, a member of the allocations committee, said there is only so much money to go around and groups must compete for it.

        May 4th Task Force members “were coming in kind of half-cocked, not really prepared,” when they gave their presentation, he said.

        He acknowledged that he's among those who wonder why the event must be commemorated every year with speeches paid for by students.

        “How many years are we going to carry this on?” Chadsey asked. “Personally, I'm not against May 4th. I'm against the students paying for May 4th.”

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