The Student Senate approved a $3,956 grant to EMU Club Sports’ dance team at the senate’s Wednesday night meeting out of its surplus budget. The funds will help support the team’s trip to national competition in Daytona, Fla., in conjunction with team fundraising efforts and other money from Club Sports. It also forgave $408 of the $500 loan it granted the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association fall term in recognition of the extensive fundraising efforts it made.
The dance team received the funding they requested only after senate members vigorously debated whether to give the group any competition money at all. The members that opposed the grant said they were concerned whether it was appropriate to fund an event that was not clearly educationally or culturally valuable to the university. Some senators also questioned whether it was appropriate to fund an EMU group with senate money, even though others argued that past precedent allowed the senate to fund competitions, which currently are not a legitimate budget item for EMU or ASUO groups.
Opponents of the dance team grant added that EMU groups should seek EMU surplus funds before bringing requests to the senate.
Senators in favor argued the University is about more than academics and that the senate’s job is to make sure that many types of groups are funded in order to maintain a diverse University. Supporters added that an event like the competition in Florida would do good things for the University’s out-of-state recruitment. Ultimately, the grant passed with a 12-5 vote, and then discussion shifted to the status of a loan granted to APALSA.
The APALSA received a $500 loan from the senate last term, which covered half of the amount requested to attend a conference. The senate gave the money to the group under the condition it requested funding from Career Center surplus funds or elsewhere. Although APALSA had only paid back $92 of the loan, the senate voted 16-1 to forgive the remainder.
In other senate business, half a dozen representatives from the Black Student Union and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority presented a proposal to the senate to transfer money left over from an earlier BSU event to an AKA fashion show that will celebrate Black History Month. The fashion show takes place at 3 p.m. Feb. 23 at Mac Court and is free.

— Kira Park