The Student Government Association wrestled with two amendments related to BUC funds at this week’s meeting.
Last week, three organizations applied for BUC funds for the same event, with intent to pool the resources. In an effort to close the loophole created by these organizations, two new pieces of legislation, SSB-16-002 and SSB-16-003, were put forth.
The two amendments were relatively similar and required that all organizations seeking funds for the same event fill out an application together. A motion was made to grant SSB-16-003 emergency status, so that the Senate could vote on it that day, instead of waiting until the next meeting.
“The next time the BUC Fund applications are due is two weeks from today,” said Sen. Tessa Branham. “So, because this does require something with BUC Fund, if we waited until next week to discuss it, it would basically only give organizations a week’s notice to hear about this change.”
Although the motion initially failed, a ruling from Attorney General Hunter Shipley during Senate remarks established that if abstentions were not included, as stated in the constitution, the necessary two-thirds majority was met.
The motion was brought back up, objected to and then tabled again. More than one senator raised concerns about the legislation’s similarity to SSB-16-002, and an overall lack of collaboration within the Senate.
Further issues arose when President Pro Tempore Landers objected, saying, “I did not give my consent to be on the other piece of legislation (SSB-16-002), so I would like that withdrawn immediately.”
This rendered SSB-16-002 null and void.
The Native American Festival was funded the full $11,460 asked for after being allotted only $3,000 at last week’s meeting. The Senate elected to fully fund the event, after discussion was held regarding previous misinformation about where the event had been previously held.
“It has a lot of potential; they pull people from all over,” said Sen. Saunders-Simon, who had been to the festival before. “It’s like Umoja Fest. It has the potential to be very big and draw in the people with the appropriate funds they were asking for.”
