Emotions rose Tuesday in the first major showdown between the SGA Senate and SGA President Ethan Flynn.
The dispute occurred over proposed 606 spending recommended by the 606 subcommittee.
Campus Crusade for Christ resubmitted their funding application to the SGA after both the 606 subcommittee and the SGA Senate did not approve any funding for the group during the second funding session on Oct. 12.
The subcommittee once again recommended no funding for the group. They were the only organization that the subcommittee recommended to receive no funding during the third funding session.
Committee members cited the concern that a precedent would be created where student organizations could just reapply for funding if they are unhappy with the amount of funding they received in a previous application. There is no rule preventing a student organization from reapplying for funding.
President Flynn wasn’t buying that argument, however. “If groups reapplying becomes a problem, we can fix that in two weeks. You just pass a bill that says that groups can’t reapply,” he said.
Much of the debate centered on consistency. In the second funding session, Campus Crusade for Christ was denied funding because it was believed 606 funding was short, and the 606 subcommittee denied most group’s request for funding if it wasn’t being spent on campus.
In the third funding session, there were two other organizations with requests for funding to go on trips. One organization, Alpha Phi Omega, received their full request of $400 to go to their national convention in Denver. The other organization, Alpha Phi Alpha, received $370 out of their $520.20 request to attend their district convention in Nashville.
During the debate, many senators appeared to favor giving Campus Crusade no funding once again when Flynn took action. “If you don’t give them money, I will veto everything,” he said. “Either give them money or give everyone zero.”
Flynn later clarified his statements to mean that he would only veto funding for the two organizations that were using funds to travel.
Several senators were still intent on keeping Campus Crusade at no funding, citing the fact that they gave them no funding before and that Campus Crusade had not raised funds for their trip at all. Both Alpha Phi Omega and Alpha Phi Alpha raised a considerable amount of money for their trips.
In the closing statements, Flynn made his final argument.
“The bottom line is money,” he said. “Before we thought we had to cut back, now we know we have the money.”
He also stressed that his veto statement wasn’t a threat.
Despite the veto threat, the first motion was to give zero funding to Campus Crusade. Several senators said they voted to fund the event solely on the basis that they did not want to see funding for other organizations denied just because of Campus Crusade.
A motion for zero funding now having been defeated, the debate turned to how much to fund Campus Crusade. After a short debate, senators agreed to fund Campus Crusade at $33 per a person, or a total of $555, which was consistent with SGA’s funding of other trips this semester.
There was some other action during the SGA meeting. The senate approved SGA Senate Resolution 04-001, recommending that all undergraduate students get early-semester reports. The resolution passed by a vote of 14-2 with 1 abstention. Currently, only freshmen receive the progress reports. The senate resolution will now go to the academic council for their consideration.
The senate gained one more member on Tuesday, approving sophomore Rachel Whitaker from the College of Arts and Science as a new senator, unanimously and without debate.

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