In a meeting that lasted about four hours Wednesday, the ASUO Student Senate gave more than $4,000 in special requests that significantly dip into its allotted budget for spring term, spent well over an hour debating a single agenda item and listened to an outspoken community member speak about his opinions on funding a certain student group.
Grupo de Capoeira, a Brazilian Martial Arts student and community group that seeks to promote Brazilian culture, came to the Senate with a request for $300 to help fund a traditional Brazilian ceremony they are hosting called a Batizado. Group members ended up engaged in a frustrating, confusing and lengthy deliberation with the Senate in an effort to determine the group’s eligibility to receive funding from student incidental fees. A major part of the discussion was whether a group can be funded with incidental fees if it charges members to participate in activities, which Grupo de Capoeira currently does. There was also a technicality that led to further confusion about whether the group could be funded by the ASUO Senate at all.
Senate Ombudsman Andy Elliott cited the rule that showed the group was not eligible to receive the $300. ASUO Vice President Ben Buzbee said he was extremely disappointed that the senator who signed the special request did not realize it was clearly against senate rules, and subsequently wasted a significant amount of both the Senate and the group representatives’ time.
The Senate also approved a request for $4,150 from the representatives for the law school’s Land Water Air conference that starts today. The money covers the traveling expenses incurred in bringing one of the keynote speakers from Africa to participate in the conference.
The senate confirmed three appointments: senior biology major Abolade Majekobaje filled seat 16, which is for science majors. Freshman Michelle Rose is the new elections director on the ASUO Elections Board and sophomore Laura Jenkins is an elections board member.
One of the more interesting items in the meeting’s agenda was a statement from community member Bruce Miller. He spoke in support of defunding student group OSPIRG because he said it does not do anything that significantly benefits fee-paying students.
“The money just goes down the drain,” Miller said.

— Kira Park