Senate gets heated about club budgets

Senate’s discussion at its Monday meeting became a heated debate about the outcome of club budget hearings and appeals.

Some senators voiced concern due to Student Senate President James Bahensky’s veto following their last meeting. Senators wondered why budget hearing appeals continued even though the veto to re-evaluate allocations from the budget hearings went through.

Treasurer Ashley Swanson said appeals continued because there was no rationale that accompanied the veto.

The main concern some senators expressed was that clubs and organizations such as Choir, Office of Student Activities and RLA had been cut more than they liked.

Swanson said that the Office of Student Activities is not a club, it does not have a representative in CAB and is seen as more of a department. It is there for clubs, but not a club itself.

If that is the case, CAB should not be considered a club either. However it was argued that both need funding and should be treated as clubs.

Jacob Rissler, Andrews Hall senator, voiced concern with RLA being cut to a conditional $12,000. Rissler argued that it put on many events on campus and needs the money, especially with the increased enrollment for the incoming freshman.

The problem the Senate Finance Committee found with RLA is the money decisions need to be made by students instead of employees.

Sara Labor, senator at large, said that even though good points were being made for RLA, no students want to step up and manage its money. Therefore, she said students should not complain if they are not willing to get involved.

RLA initially submitted a budget of $25,000 and later submitted a $30,000 budget after the deadline. Its second budget submission was late and therefore was not considered by SFC, Swanson said.

Bahensky said he thought actions could have been handled differently and does not agree with the committee’s decision.

Student Senate Sponsor Aaron Prestwich, interim executive director of student life, said, “If RLA is being cut on the basis of not enough student involvement so should The Pit.” He disagrees with this but used it to make a point. If these rules are being applied to RLA then they should be applied to The Pit and CAB, Prestwich sad.

It was moved to deny the budgets after appeals and to send it back to SFC for a re-evaluation and be brought back to Student Senate with changes at its April 15 meeting.

In other business, Nelson Physical Activities Center coordinator Chris Green gave a proposal to senate for $80,000 to buy and install new equipment that is currently being demoed in the weight room.

The demo equipment is available until April 23 and there are surveys on the desk in the weight room for people to fill out after trying the equipment. This demo equipment is very high tech and many people have highlighted the espresso bike saying, “it is like playing a video game while working out.”

A new addition to the Reta E. King library is the IT Department’s Help Desk. Students will soon be able to reset their passwords for their NUID and campus computers.