Senators and the Students Activities Finance Committee debated A-Status funding and passed a motion for CTECs working groups Wednesday night.
From a pool of $57,157.56, student group representatives had a chance to either add or cut funding to recommendations made by SAFC. The funding process allowed representatives to go through an initial round of additions to funding, then a round for cuts and a final round to add to the funding recommendation again.
In randomized order, Speaker of Senate Noah Star called out names of A-status groups. South Asian Students Association was the first to motion to add $4,015 for their Winter Speaker event, almost a 31 percent increase of the previous year’s allocation. SAFC members declared that the requested amount was “too large” since the amendment pool was only allowed to increase by 4 percent. SAFC explained that SASA received a marginal decrease in their funding due to a financial misconduct. SASA and the Muslim Cultural Students Association failed to put on their cosponsored event and was “deserving” of a cut due to “poor planning” of the co-sponsorship.
ASG Senator Parag Dharmavarapu argued that the funding decision shouldn’t be based on co-sponsorship misconduct, yet failed to convince senators to pass the motion. In the third round of funding, Dharmavarapu requested an additional $763 for the honorarium, which passed. Later, senators also passed the addition of $400 to airfare transportation for the SASA-McSA co-sponsorship.
Senators also debated Hillel’s motion to increase their funding. Hillel representatives argued that their co-sponsorship with A&O was highly successful and sold out in 90 minutes, yet they received no additional funding. SAFC said they interviewed both Hillel and A&O and determined their recommendation through those interviews. SAFC deemed the co-sponsorship unsuccessful based on Hillel’s mission statement and unequal delegation of responsibility in planning the event.
After Hillel failed to increase their funding initially, they moved to add $800 to their Winter Speaker Honorarium in the final round after briefly explaining the miscommunication that had influenced the SAFC recommendation. Hillel said they were able to increase attendance by collaborating with A&O. However, SAFC said attendance was only one of the metrics taken into funding consideration. SAFC deemed the co-sponsorship unsuccessful based on the unequal delegation of responsibility for planning the event. Even with this in mind, senators still passed the addition to funding.
A&O also requested an increase in funding, noting the success of their co-sponsorship with Hillel. SAFC argued that A&O shouldn’t receive the requested amount because they had an opportunity to communicate the success of the event, yet failed to do so. Despite SAFC’s disapproval of the funding request, the increase of $867 passed.
Senators passed other funding requests from additional A-status groups such as NCDC, which requested $1,750 for Project Pumpkin to pay for candy. Knowing SAFC doesn’t fund food, NCDC appealed to senators with candy as a tradition to approve the extra funding. NCDC/Peace Project also received an additional $300 in funding, and UNITY Fashion Show received $4,600.
Other groups struggled to increase their funding recommendations. College Republicans failed to add $200 to their fall speaker honorarium due to insufficient attendance, which is a major factor when deliberating funding.
Senators also heard a presentation on "A Day in the Life," which was an initiative piloted in the winter for administrators to follow students around and experience the impact of their policies. They confirmed members of the Student Group committee and elected two senators to preside over an election commission as well.
Senate agreed with Student Life Vice President Chris Harlow and Executive Vice President Erik Zorn to delay the “Dorm is a 4-letter Word” legislation one more week to make changes after meeting with relevant parties. Senate also passed two pieces of legislation to form working groups to examine CTECs and Off-Campus Senator recruitment and retention, respectively.